Gioachino Rossini - The Barber Of Seville

Gioachino Rossini was without doubt the most famous operatic composer of his day.  He had a prodigious output: he wrote 38 operas in the 14 years between 1815 and 1829.  Today's selection was one of the first operas performed in the United States.  He was at the height of his musical power and fame.

And then he retired, at 38 years old.  He sort of puttered around until his death in 1868, dabbling in food (he was an amateur chef, best known in culinary circles today for Tournedos Rossini, created for the maestro by Escoffier himself).

The Barber of Seville is his most famous work, and each of you has heard it before - more on this later.  It's believed that Rossini wrote the entire opera in just three weeks.  While the story was old by then - Mozart himself had written the Marriage of Figaro decades prior to this - Rossini's arc of the slow, quiet start with an almost manic finish made this one of his most popular works.



I said earlier that you've heard this before.  Likely you heard it at the same place I heard it:



Greatest cartoon of all time.  The music parallels Rossini's score almost perfectly, while the visuals dial the manic up to 11.  Simply outstanding as entertainment, but extra props for the subtle musical education that Warner Brothers gave us all.