Im about to enter into a mad love affair...with Rossini. Anyone planning to see La Cenerentola at the SF opera this month? Im no snob when it comes to the opera, I just like it. Well, I like certain opera composers. Ive had this thought, if its someones very first time going to the opera it ought to be Rossini. It was the year 2000 and I was sitting in an Italian opera theater in Rome completely and surprisingly intoxicated by the sparkling melodies and textures of his Italian in Algiers. Up until then, I hadnt actually heard a Rossini opera. I then understood why one of my music history professors in grad school had really impressed upon us saying, you know the two GREAT composers of the first third of the 19th century were Beethoven... and Rossini. The way western classical music history is generally told is that it was all Beethoven. Beethoven Beethoven Beethoven. Beethoven was the reigning KING and no one else could hold a candle to him. But the fact was that Rossini rocked and was a prodigy and so CRAZILY prolific. He wrote La Cenerentola at the age of 25. Twenty fricken FIVE! He wrote more than 40 operas in his life and then retired at the age of 29?! He was one of THE most popular composers in European music history ever. But thats the thing about academic musicology. Any music that was too likable was considered suspect. Its really very much okay to like Rossini. Very much okay. Check out this video of a classic music video of Rossinis La Cenerentola staged by the Teatro La Scala with Claudio Abbado conducting and Frederica von Stade singing the exquisite mezzo role of Cinderella. *sigh* youtu.be/HXZn1j_484U
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 06:34:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015