The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-21 00:00:00

DEATH OF ROSSINI.

The death of a man who ha a influenced his art and
his times like Gioacchino Antonio Rossini cannot be
passed over with merely a passing record of the fact.
'll-ie illustrious musician departed this life on Friday
night, in last week, at his apartments in the Rue de la
Chauss4e d'Antin.
Rossini was born on the 29th Of February, 1792, at
Pesaro, fortnerlv belonging to the Papal States, now a
part of the kingdom ,4 Italy: and consequently died in
his 77th year. In this short sketch, we cannot give a
detailed account of his works— suffice it to glance at a
fe,..y of them.

11 a
first opera, La eambiale di Matrinzonin, produced
at Venice in 1810, is now forgotten; while scarcely
more than a quartet and the ox erture are known of his
second —Dcsictrio e Pol d.lo —given at Rome a year later.
Nor have more than a very few pieces from his text
seven operas (including L'lnganao Fd ire and Pietro &I
Paragont) escaped oblivion. These, written with
almost unexampled rapidity (all in 1812, or there-
abouts), gained for their author no solid reputation -
little, indeed, beyond that of almost unparalleled
facility of production. The opera which first made
him famous was Taneredi, brought out during the
Carnival of Venice at the Teatro Fenice, in 1812 ; and
this was followed, some months later, by L'ltaliana in
Algeria, at the Teatro San Benedetto, in the same city,
and with a success in no degree inferior. By these two
works the young composer bad shown himself equally
a master of opera seria and opera buffs.
It may be Interesting to note the great thccess which
attended the opera Elzabeda, and amongst the singers
, were Manuel Garcia. thefan;ons Spanish tenor, father
of Malibran, and Isabella Colbrand, who af erwards
. became Rossini's wife.
The history of II Barbiere, and its first performance.
when not a note of the second act cold be heart, in
consequence of the turbulent opposition made by the 1
friends of Paesiello, its tiiumpli at the second per-
formance and the attendant consequences are too
familiar to all wha interest themselves in musical mat-
test to need repeating.

Sentiramide, the last of Rossini's purely Italian
operas, is popular to this day, and its inspiring strains
delight both the amateur and professionaL
After going to Vienna, and—much to the chagrin of
Beethoven, who was nothing if not German—turning
the heads of the fickle Viennese, It mini visited
London. How the great Italian, who sang arid played
just as well 118 he composed, Mid was not less pre-
possessing as a man than gifted as a musician, was
everywhere welixiined and Mted in the English capital,
may be remembered by many stilt livii,. Into his
career as director of the Opdra Italie', in Faris, where,
after much opposition, both interested and disin-
terested, his music had acquired extraordinary popu-
larity, where he had composed the charming littte
opera of II Vieuggiou Rema (for the "fetes du sacre" of
Charles X.—June, 1825), subsequently developed into
the yet more fine Bating Comte Ory, where, in Le
Sie'ge Coriothe and Motor, he had given colossal
dimensions to two of his earlier Italian works,
1 and where, on the 3rd of August 1829, he crownea
the edifice of his glory with his immortal master-
piece, Onlluome Tell, we cannot possibly enter; nor is
it necessary to say one word about the universally
' popular Stedeat Man?, a masterpiece in another style.
Enough that, from the production of Ouillauene Ttll
until the day of his death, Rossini, though it is known
that he has written, mom especially of la' e years, a
great many pieces if various descrptions- among ti,.
rest the famous Stobat (1832), some sacred choruses,
and, very recently (1864), what he modestly styled a
"polite norm," of which every one speaks in raptures
--he has published, or allowed to be published, very
little. IN hat were the actual reasons for his com-
parative cessation from labour his most intimate
friends would find it difficult to explain, for he himself
could never be brought to talk seriously on the subject
Tile loss to a, t trrough the obstinate reticence of
so great a genius may be readily inaat,ined ; but he had
purclaas d leisure by hard toil and working of the brain
enough. t? wear out a stronger frame.
. _ . .

%maim's first wife (Uo!brand) died at Bologna in
1845, and two years later he married Millie. Olympe
Pelissier, his second. From 1836 to 1847 he lived in
retirement at Bologna, occupying himself with agri-
culture and painting, and employing sone of his
leisure in teaching Anatol then a promising young
girl, to sing. Thence he moved to Florence; and in
1855, his health being much impaired, by the advice of
his doctor, quitted Florence for Paris, which he never
afterwards left, dwelling during the summer in a villa
he had built for himself at Pansy, and during the
winter in apartments in a house at the corner of the
Rue de Is Chaussee d'Antin. At Paris. where, after
a time, bis health was completely restored, he was the
object of attention and solicitude front high and low,
enjoying as one of his most enthusi atic admirers says—
" une Writable royautd intellectuelle. consult, tkaattt,,
admird c 1111 l me jinni Goethe et Ilimiboldt, s'occnpant
de tout et de tons avec uneactivit4, tine solicitude, une
bontd dont il fact reuoncer is l'id6e." The description
is but simple truth. Rossini was sought out and
courted, not merely on account of his fame as a com-
poser, but for his wit, his humour, lit amiability, and
general goodness. With him has departed one of the
most remarkable geniuses and one of the kindliest
piths of the nineteenth century.