Programm

Gioacchino Rossini (1792 - 1868)

One of opera's most intriguing figures, Gioacchino Rossini, was born in Pesaro, Italy, on February 29, l792. His father, the town trumpeter, and his mother, a singer, encouraged their son's musical talents; from an early age, Gioacchino was an accomplished performer on the harpsichord, violin, and piano, as well as a boy soprano in the opera. He began his composing career with Demetrio e Polibio, which was first staged in 1812.

Rossini's first professional work was La Cambiale di Matrimonio (The Marriage Contract), a one-act opera buffa (comic opera) that was produced in Venice in 1810. During the next four years, Rossini composed several operas which were performed in Venice and Milan, and he began to earn a reputation as an inspired melodist. Of his works from this period only three are noteworthy: Tancredi, an opera seria (a formalized genre of serious opera), which established Rossini's fame outside of Italy; L'Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers), a sparkling comedy that is still frequently performed; and Il Turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy), a 1814 comedy.

Rossini next became music director of both opera houses in Naples. He wrote Elisabetta Regina d'Inghilterra (Elizabeth Queen of England) in 1815 for Isabella Colbran, a soprano he had met while a student in Bologna. Isabella went on to create the leading roles in several Rossini operas; in l824, she became Rossini's wife. Elisabetta marks the first time that Rossini's recitatives--the half-spoken, half-sung expository section of the opera--were accompanied by the strings, and not simply the harpsichord.

In Rossini's Neapolitan operas, the composer's intentions came to be far more respected than in the past. The bel canto (beautiful singing) period in which he wrote was a time when singers improvised elaborate embellishments to display their technical virtuosity, often ornamenting the arias beyond recognition. By writing out the vocal decorations himself and insisting that the singers adhere to them, Rossini helped to contribute to the rise of the composer as the dominant musical personality. But even he could not completely curb his artists. The renowned soprano, Adelina Patti, once performed an aria from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia for the composer. "And how did you like the aria, maestro?" she asked. "A charming tune," replied Rossini dryly; "I wonder who wrote it?"

One of the commissions Rossini accepted during his tenure in Naples was for an opera entitled Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). There arose immediately an anti-Rossini faction made up of partisans of Il Barbiere di Siviglia of Giovanni Paisiello that had been a fixture of the operatic repertory for a generation. The opening night of the Rossini work in Rome was a disaster, thanks to the animosity of the crowd and several freak accidents: during the tenor's serenade, the strings of the onstage guitar broke; a cat wandered onto the set during the middle of the performance and upstaged everyone; and one of the singers fell down and was forced to sing with a bloody nose. Subsequent performances brought great acclaim. Today, with its tuneful score and mercurial story, Il Barbiere di Siviglia is the most popular comic opera in the world.

Rossini was notoriously lazy. He delayed completing his commissions until the last possible moment, and often `borrowed' music from his other operas to spare himself the labor of writing new material. The famous overture from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, for instance, had been previously attached to three different operas. Rossini also worked fast; Il Barbiere was dashed off in an incredible thirteen days. In all, his gift for melodic invention allowed him to produce an astounding thirty-nine operas in nineteen years.

Following the success of Il Barbiere, Rossini continued to compose prolifically. Otello (1816) contains some of his most beautiful music; La Cenerentola (1817), second only to Il Barbiere in popularity, is a hilarious Cinderella story; La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie, 1817) is best remembered for its sparkling overture; Mose in Egitto (Moses in Egypt, 1818) is described as `a tragic sacred drama'; La Donna del Lago (The Lady of the Lake, 1819) has as its source a poem by Sir Walter Scott; and Semiramide (1823) is a huge-scale opera with much coloratura writing.

Rossini traveled extensively throughout Europe. Settling in Paris, he was appointed director of the Theatre Italien, as well as Composer to the King and Inspector General of Singing. The Paris Opera produced a number of his works, including Le Siege de Corinthe (The Siege of Corinth, 1826), a monumental spectacle, and his final opera, the magnificent Guillaume Tell (William Tell), in 1829. Guillaume Tell (whose spirited overture is familiar worldwide) is a seminal work in the history of French grand opera.

In 1829, at the age of thirty-seven and at the height of his popularity, Rossini retired from composing. The only works he produced thereafter were for his own enjoyment, including two religious pieces--the Stabat Mater (1842) and the Petite Messe Solennelle (1864). A wealthy man, Rossini had no need to continue accepting commissions, and a life of self-indulgent leisure had always greatly appealed to him. Furthermore, he took a dim view of the new directions in which singing (and music in general) were heading; he felt that his style of opera belonged to a past generation.

For his remaining thirty-nine years, Rossini lived a life of indolence and pleasure. A celebrated gourmet and 'bon vivant,' he turned his home in Paris into one of the most glittering salons in all of Europe. He died on February 13, 1868, still so prominent and respected that his death engendered numerous moving tributes.

(New York City Opera Biography)

Petite Messe Solennelle

Gioachino Rossini kehrte 1855 nach fast 20-jährigem Italienaufenthalt wieder nach Frankreich zurück. Er erwarb in Passy, nahe bei Paris, eine Villa, in der er, nach Beendigung seines Opernschaffens eine Vielzahl kleiner Stücke komponierte, die von ihm selbst ironisch als "Sünden des Alters" bezeichnet wurden. Dazu zählt auch die Petite Messe Solennelle, die er, aus Anlaß der Einweihung der Privatkapelle eines befreundeten Pariser Adligen im Jahre 1864 schrieb. Sie wurde neben dem bereits 22 Jahre zuvor komponierten, bekannteren Stabat Mater die zweite große kirchenmusikalische Schöpfung Rossinis.

Die auf den ersten Blick etwas ungewöhnlich erscheinende Begleitung mit Klavier und Harmonium war in der französischen Messtradition durchaus beliebt und kam den räumlichen Verhältnissen der Uraufführung im privaten Rahmen entgegen. Dennoch wurde Rossini sehr bald von Freunden und Pariser Musikkritikern gedrängt, eine Orchesterfassung zu komponieren. Diesem Drängen gab er erst 1867, entgegen seiner künstlerischen Überzeugung nach, auch aus der Sorge, nach seinem Tode könnte ein anderer diese Arbeit übernehmen und dabei das Werk entstellen: "...Man will, daß ich sie instrumentiere, damit sie dann in irgendeiner Pariser Kirche aufgeführt werden kann. Ich habe Widerwillen, solche Arbeit zu übernehmen, weil ich in diese Komposition all mein kleines musikalisches Wissen gelegt habe, und weil ich gearbeitet habe mit wahrer Liebe zur Religion..."

Für Rossini war diese Messe ein sehr persönliches Werk, in erster Linie für ihn selbst komponiert, daß er, wie alle in seinen letzten Jahren entstandenen Kompositionen, hütete, so daß es erst nach seinem Tode veröffentlicht wurde. Wie den meisten italienischen kirchenmusikalischen Schöpfungen wurde auch dieser Messe mit Unverständnis begegnet; vor allem von deutscher Seite, die nicht wahrhaben wollte, daß es auch eine andere Art Kirchenmusik geben konnte, verwurzelt in einer anderen Tradition, voller Heiterkeit, aber deswegen nicht weniger ernsthaft als Musik zum Lobe Gottes gedacht.

Diese Kritik ist umso verwunderlicher, als über der Musik dieser Messe ein Zug von Nachdenklichkeit und Wehmut liegt, und gerade die kontrapunktische Kunst Rossinis nach einem intensiven Studium des Werkes von Johann Sebastian Bach als bedeutender Fortschritt in technischer Hinsicht angesehen wurde. Daneben hoben schon die ersten Stellungnahmen die harmonische Originalität und Progressivität der Messe als eine neue Facette seines Schaffens hervor, die sich in diesem Werk bei allem Überfluß an schönen Melodien bemerkbar macht.

Neben dem technisch Neuen war es vor allem die Intensität des musikalischen Ausdrucks, die expressive Kraft der Musik dieser Messe, die bewundert wurde und eines deutlich Signalisierte: Die Petite Messe Solennelle war das Werk eines Komponisten, der sich nach außen in seinen ironischen Späßen gefallen haben mag, der in seiner Musik aber die Hoffnung, Freuden und Ängste eines Menschen ausdrückt, für den aufrichtiger Zweifel, und mit diesem eine gewisse düsterbrütende Melancholie Bestandteil eines Glaubens ist, an dem er unabdingbar festhält.

(nach Klaus Doge, Vorwort zum Klavierauszug, Carus Verlag Stuttgart, 1993)