Page 20 - BBC Music (January 2020)

The full score

THE LISTENING SERVICE

The art of Rossini

Rossini’s ebullient comic
operas and catchy tunes
have distracted us from his
music’s considerable artistry
and heartfelt humanity,
laments Tom Service

ILLUSTRATION: MARIA CORTE MAIDAGAN

t’s the ultimate way to serve steak: to
make Tournedos Rossini, find the
I finest slices of brioche, place your
filets mignons on top, and consecrate the
meat with meltingly warm foie gras and
sliced truffle. Voilà! Your one-way ticket
to a food coma, as well as gastronomic
and quite possibly literal heaven.
But this steak reveals Gioachino
Rossini’s reputational problem. It shores
up his image as a composer of worldly
appetites rather than superhuman
compositional achievement. Yes, he
gave his name to epicurean indulgence,
but most importantly he wrote 39
operas in half as many years; he was
the most famous composer of the
early 19th century; he was envied by But Rossini’s spectacular innovations That’s why Rossini’s Petite messe
Beethoven and Wagner; and he was turned the opera house into a place of solennelle, one of the ‘Sins of my old
adored by audiences wherever his music sheer musical thrills, of vocal fireworks age’, is so moving. (The ‘Sins’ are music
conquered the opera house, whether in and orchestral finesse to which every he composed between his operatic
Naples, Paris, Vienna or London. subsequent composer of operas in Italy retirement and his death in 1868, also
And yet: he is also one of the most was indebted, from Bellini to Donizetti, including dozens of piano pieces whose
taken-for-granted musicians in history, Verdi to Puccini. surreal poetics pre-figure Erik Satie.) His
mostly now remembered as a composer mass is addressed to us, to our fears and
of some of the greatest, it turned out, It’s as if Rossini is a kind our desires here on earth; it’s composed,
made-for-TV tunes, like the overture to of embarrassment of as Rossini writes with hilarious modesty
William Tell or ‘Largo al Factotum’, and at the end of the manuscript, with ‘Not
a handful of sparkling comedies like easily won popularity much technique, a little bit of heart,
Cinderella and The Barber of Seville. that’s all.’ He then says to God: ‘Blessings
Proof of how far Rossini’s reputation And so was Wagner. He visited to you and grant me Paradise.’
has fallen is what didn’t happen to him Rossini in 1860, after his retirement But it’s not only the Creator, it’s all of
in 2018, the 150th anniversary of his from the public compositional stage in us who need to be grateful to Gioachino.
death, with all those complete cycles 1829 with William Tell. Wagner wrote So next time you’re tucking into a steak,
of his operas that weren’t performed patronisingly: imagine what Rossini consider the equally delicious joys of
here: it’s as if Rossini is a kind of could have achieved, if he had only ‘felt Rossini’s imaginative music
embarrassment of easily won popularity within himself the religion of his art.’
instead of the seriousness we want But Rossini did something much better.
Tom Service explores how
from 19th-century composers like Instead of otiose religiosity, he honoured music works in The Listening
Schumann, Berlioz, Chopin or Brahms. the humanity of his music. Service on Sundays at 5pm

22 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE