Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792 – 1868) was an
Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas,
although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music
and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new
standards for both comic and serious opera before
retiring from large-scale composition while still in
his thirties, at the height of his popularity.
Born in Pesaro to parents who were both musicians (his
father a trumpeter, his mother a singer), Rossini began
to compose by the age o...(+)
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792 – 1868) was an
Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas,
although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music
and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new
standards for both comic and serious opera before
retiring from large-scale composition while still in
his thirties, at the height of his popularity.
Born in Pesaro to parents who were both musicians (his
father a trumpeter, his mother a singer), Rossini began
to compose by the age of 12 and was educated at music
school in Bologna. His first opera was performed in
Venice in 1810 when he was 18 years old. In 1815 he was
engaged to write operas and manage theatres in Naples.
In the period 1810–1823 he wrote 34 operas for the
Italian stage that were performed in Venice, Milan,
Ferrara, Naples and elsewhere; this productivity
necessitated an almost formulaic approach for some
components (such as overtures) and a certain amount of
self-borrowing. During this period he produced his most
popular works including the comic operas L'italiana in
Algeri, Il barbiere di Siviglia (known in English as
The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola, which
brought to a peak the opera buffa tradition he
inherited from masters such as Domenico Cimarosa. He
also composed opera seria works such as Otello,
Tancredi and Semiramide. All of these attracted
admiration for their innovation in melody, harmonic and
instrumental colour, and dramatic form. In 1824 he was
contracted by the Opéra in Paris, for which he
produced an opera to celebrate the coronation of
Charles X, Il viaggio a Reims (later cannibalised for
his first opera in French, Le comte Ory), revisions of
two of his Italian operas, Le siège de Corinthe and
Moïse, and in 1829 his last opera, Guillaume Tell.
Rossini's withdrawal from opera for the last 40 years
of his life has never been fully explained;
contributary factors may have been ill-health, the
wealth his success had brought him, and the rise of
spectacular Grand Opera under composers such as Giacomo
Meyerbeer. From the early 1830s to 1855, when he left
Paris and was based in Bologna, Rossini wrote
relatively little. On his return to Paris in 1855 he
became renowned for his musical salons on Saturdays,
regularly attended by musicians and the artistic and
fashionable circles of Paris, for which he wrote the
entertaining pieces Péchés de vieillesse. Guests
included Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Giuseppe Verdi,
Meyerbeer and Joseph Joachim. Rossini's last major
composition was his Petite messe solennelle (1863). He
died in Paris in 1868.
The comic opera Armida was written to be performed at
the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, on 11 November 1817 to
celebrate the opening of the rebuilt opera house, which
had been destroyed by fire the previous year. Isabella
Colbran sang the title role, which is one of the
longest and most demanding that Rossini wrote, with
difficult coloratura passages of every kind during the
entire opera. The most notable are to be found in
"D'amore al dolce impero" during Act 2, in the duets
between Armida and Rinaldo, and in parts of the Act 3
finale.
The first modern staging took place at the Teatro
Comunale of Florence on 26 April 1952, during the
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with Maria Callas and
Francesco Albanese in the leading roles and Tullio
Serafin conducting. More recently, performances were
given in Aix-en-Provence in 1988, with June Anderson,
Rockwell Blake, Raúl Giménez, under conductor
Gianfranco Masini, and at the Rossini Opera Festival in
1993, with Renée Fleming and Gregory Kunde, under
conductor Daniele Gatti.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioachino_Rossini).
Although originally scored for Opera, I created this
Arrangement of the "D'amore al dolce impero" from
"Armida" (Act II No. 6) for Bb Clarinet & Small
Orchestra (Flutes, Oboes, Bb Clarinets, Bb Trumpets,
French Horns, Bassoons, Timpani, 2 Violins, Violas &
Cellos).
SHEET MUSIC