ROSSINI, Gioacchino Antonio
b Pesaro, Italy, 29 February 1792
d Passy, near Paris, 13 November 1868, aged seventy-six

His father was a town trumpeter and inspector of slaughter-houses; his mother later became leading lady in comic opera: At the Conservatory of Bologna he studied cello and composition, and was composing chamber works at the age of sixteen. He wrote his first opera at eighteen, and by his early twenties he was director of the San Carlo Theatre in Naples. Between 1810 and 1829 he wrote sixteen operas, then never wrote another for the remaining forty years of his life.

1808 (16)

Sonatas for two violins, cello and double-bass

1809 (17)

Variations for clarinet and orchestra, in C major

1810 (18)

La cambiale di matrimonio, opera

1812 (20)

La Scala di seta (The Silken Ladder), opera

1813 (21)

L'Italiana in Algeri, opera

Tancredi, opera

1815 (23)

Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra, opera

1816 (24)

Otello, opera

The Barber of Seville, opera

1817 (25)

La Cenerentola, opera

La Gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie), opera

1818 (26)

Mose, opera

1820 (28)

Maometto Il, opera

Solemn Mass

1822 (30)

Zelmira, opera

1823 (31)

Semiramide, opera

1825 (33)

Il viaggio a Reims, opera

1826 (34)

Le Siege de Corinthe, opera (French-language version of Maometto II)

1827 (35)

Moise, opera (French-language version of Mose)

1828 (36)

fp Comte Ory, comedy-opera

1829 (37)

William Tell, opera

1863 (71)

Petite Messe Solennelle

Rossini also composed:

Stabat Mater (1832-41)

Soirees musicales

Piano pieces etc