Coordinates: 35°27′24″N 43°15′45″E / 35.45667°N 43.2625°E / 35.45667; 43.2625

Assur (also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian 𒀸𒋩 Aššur; Aramaic: ܐܬܘܪ‎ Aṯur; Hebrew: אַשּׁוּר‎ Aššûr; Arabic: آشور‎ Ašur), was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. The remains of the city are situated on the western bank of river Tigris, north of the confluence with the tributary Little Zab river, in modern day Iraq, more precisely in the Al-Shirqat District (a small panhandle of the Salah al-Din Governorate).

The city was occupied from the mid 3rd millennium BC (Circa 2600-2500 BC) through to the 14th Century AD when Tamurlane conducted a massacre of Assyrian Christians.

Assur is also the name of the chief deity of the city. He was considered the highest god in the Assyrian pantheon and the protector of the Assyrian state. In the Mesopotamian mythology he was the equivalent of Babylonian Marduk.

The site of Assur is a United Nations World Heritage Site, but was placed on the list of World Heritage Sites in danger in 2003, in part due to the conflict in that area, and also due to a proposed dam, that would flood part of the site.

Archaeology[link]

Exploration of the site of Assur began in 1898 by German archaeologists. Excavations began in 1900 by Friedrich Delitzsch, and were continued in 1903-1913 by a team from the German Oriental Society led initially by Robert Koldewey and later by Walter Andrae.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} More than 16,000 tablets with cuneiform texts were discovered. Many of the objects found made their way to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

More recently, Ashur was excavated by B. Hrouda for the University of Munich and the Bavarian Ministry of Culture in 1990.^[6] During the same period, in 1988 and 1989, the site was being worked by R. Dittmann on behalf of the German Research Foundation.^[7]

Name[link]

Aššur is the name of the city, of the land ruled by the city, and of its tutelary deity. At a late date it appears in Assyrian literature in the forms An-sar, An-sar (ki), which form was presumably read Assur. The name of the deity is written A-šur or Aš-sùr, and in Neo-assyrian often shortened to Aš.

In the Creation tablet, the heavens personified collectively were indicated by this term An-sar, "host of heaven," in contradistinction to the earth, Ki-sar, "host of earth."^{[citation needed]}

In view of this fact, it seems highly probable that the late writing An-sar for Assur was a more or less conscious attempt on the part of the Assyrian scribes to identify the peculiarly Assyrian deity Asur with the Creation deity An-sar. On the other hand, there is an epithet Asir or Ashir ("overseer") applied to several gods and particularly to the deity Asur, a fact which introduced a third element of confusion into the discussion of the name Assur. It is probable then that there is a triple popular etymology in the various forms of writing the name Assur; viz. A-usar, An-sar and the stem asdru.^{[citation needed]}

Early Bronze Age[link]

Archaeology reveals the site of the city was occupied by the middle of the third millennium BC. This was still the Sumerian period, before the Assyrian kingdom emerged in the 23rd to 21st century BC. The oldest remains of the city were discovered in the foundations of the Ishtar temple, as well as at the Old Palace. In the following Old Akkadian period, the city was ruled by kings from Akkad. During the "Sumerian Renaissance", the city was ruled by a Sumerian governor.

Old and Middle Assyria[link]

Mesopotamia in 2nd millennium BC

By the time the Neo-Sumerian Ur-III dynasty collapsed at the hands of the Elamites in ca. the 21st century BC, the local Akkadian kings, including those in Assur, had shaken off the Sumerian yoke. An Assyrian king named Ushpia who reigned in ca. the 21st century BC is credited with dedicating the first temple of the god Assur in his home city. In around 2000 BC, Puzur-Ashur I founded a new dynasty, and his successors such as Ilushuma, Erishum I and Sargon I left inscriptions regarding the building of temples to Ashur, Adad and Ishtar in the city. Assur developed rapidly into a centre for trade, and trade routes led from the city to Anatolia, where merchants from Assur established trading colonies. These Assyrian colonies in Asia Minor were called kârum, and traded mostly with tin and wool (see Kültepe). In the city of Assur, the first great temples to the city god Assur and the weather god Adad were erected. The first fortifications were also began in this period.

Assur was the capital of the empire of Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1781 BC). He expanded the city's power and influence beyond the Tigris river valley, creating what some regard as the first Assyrian Empire. In this period, the Great Royal Palace was built, and the temple of Assur was expanded and enlarged with a ziggurat. This empire came to end when Hammurabi, the Amorite king of Babylon incorporated the city into his short lived empire following the death of Ishme-Dagan I circa 1756 BC, and the next three Assyrian kings were regarded as vassals. A native king named Adasi drove the Babylonians and Amorites from Assur and Assyria as a whole circa 1720 BC, however little is known of his successors. Renewed building activity is known a few centuries later, during the reign of a native king Puzur-Ashur III, when the city was refortified and the southern quarters incorporated into the main city defenses. Temples to the moon god Sin (Nanna) and the sun god Shamash were erected in the 15th century BC. The city was then subjugated by the king of Mitanni, Shaushtatar in the mid 15th Century, who removed the gold and silver doors of the temple to his capital, Washukani, as plunder.

Ashur-uballit I overthrew the Mitanni empire in 1365 BC, and the Assyrians benefited from this development by taking control of the eastern portion of the Mitanni Empire, and later also annexing Hittite, Babylonian, Amorite and Hurrian territory. In the following centuries the old temples and palaces of Assur were restored, and the city once more became the seat of a powerful empire from 1365 BC to 1076 BC. Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244-1208 BC) also started a new temple to the goddess Ishtar. The Anu-Adad temple was constructed during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1075 BC). The walled area of the city in the Middle Assyrian period made up some 1.2 square kilometres (300 acres).

Neo-Assyrian Empire[link]

Parthian temple in Assur.

In the Neo-Assyrian Empire (912-608 BC), the royal residence was transferred to other Assyrian cities. Ashur-nasir-pal II (884-859 BC) moved the capital from Assur to Kalhu (Calah/Nimrud). Yet the city of Assur remained the religious center of the empire, due to its temple of the national god Ashur. In the reign of Sennacherib (705-682 BC), the House of the New Year, akitu, was built, and the festivities celebrated in the city. Several Assyrian rulers were also buried beneath the Old Palace. The city was sacked and largely destroyed during the conquest of Assyria by the Medes, Babylonians and Scythians in 612 BC.

Persian Empire[link]

The city was fully reoccupied by Assyrians some centuries later. In the Parthian period, between 100 BC and 270 AD, the city becomes an important administrative centre of Parthian ruled Assyria (Assuristan), and some Assyriologists such as Simo Parpola have suggested it may have had some degree of autonomy or outright independence. New administrative buildings were erected to the north of the old city, and a palace to the south. The old temple dedicated to the national god of the Assyrians Assur (Ashur) was also rebuilt, indicating the continued occupation by ethnic Assyrians[1]. However, the city was largely destroyed again by the Sassanid king Shapur I (241-272 AD). However, the city remained occupied, and some settlement at the site is known right up to the 14th century.

Assur seems to have been reoccupied by Assyrians once again, and remained so well into the Parthian and Sassanid periods. It was occupied during the Islamic period until the 14th century when Tamurlane conducted a massacre of indigenous Assyrian Christians. After that there are no traces of a settlement in the archaeological and numismatic record. [2].

Threats to Assur[link]

The site was put on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger in 2003, at which time the site was threatened by a looming large-scale dam project that would have submerged the ancient archaeological site.^[8] The dam project was put on hold shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• Ashurism
• Ashur (god)
• Assyria
• Kings of Assyria
• Chronology of the ancient Near East
• Short chronology timeline
• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Assyrian People

References[link]

• Walter Andrae: Babylon. Die versunkene Weltstadt und ihr Ausgräber Robert Koldewey. de Gruyter, Berlin 1952.
• Stefan Heidemann: Al-'Aqr, das islamische Assur. Ein Beitrag zur historischen Topographie Nordmesopotamiens. In: Karin Bartl and Stefan hauser et al. (eds.): Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient. Seminar fur Altorientalische Philologie und Seminar für Vorderasiatische Altertumskunde der Freien Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Altertumswissenschaften. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1996, pp. 259–285
• Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum: Die Assyrer. Geschichte, Gesellschaft, Kultur. C.H.Beck Wissen, München 2003. ISBN 3-406-50828-6
• Olaf Matthes: Zur Vorgeschichte der Ausgrabungen in Assur 1898-1903/05. MDOG Berlin 129, 1997, 9-27. ISSN 0342-118X
• P. A. Miglus: Das Wohngebiet von Assur, Stratigraphie und Architektur. Berlin 1996. ISBN 3-7861-1731-4
• Susan L. Marchand: Down from Olympus. Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany 1750-1970. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1996. ISBN 0-691-04393-0
• Conrad Preusser: Die Paläste in Assur. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1996. ISBN 3-7861-2004-8

v t e World Heritage Sites in Iraq Assur · Hatra · Samarra

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2011)

Samuel Edward Ramey (born March 28, 1942 in Colby, Kansas) is an American operatic bass with a long, distinguished career.^{[1] [2]} At the height of his career, he was greatly admired for his range and versatility, having possessed a sufficiently accomplished bel canto technique to enable him to sing the music of Handel, Mozart, Rossini, yet power enough to handle the more overtly dramatic roles written by Verdi and Puccini.

He married his third wife, soprano Lindsey Larsen, on June 29, 2002.

Early life[link]

Samuel Ramey is a 1960 graduate of Colby High School in the town of Colby, Kansas. He studied music in high school and in college at Kansas State University, as well as at Wichita State with Arthur Newman. In college at Kansas State, Ramey was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. After further study in Central City (where he was in the chorus of Don Giovanni in 1963, with Norman Treigle in the title role) and as an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera, he went to New York where he worked for an academic publisher before he had his first breakthrough at the New York City Opera, debuting on March 11, 1973 singing the role of Zuniga in the 1875 Bizet opera Carmen, after which, among other roles, he took over the Faustian devils in Gounod's Faust and Boito's Mefistofele left empty by the early death of Treigle.

As his repertoire expanded, he spent more and more time in the theatres of Europe, notably in Berlin, Hamburg, London, Paris, Vienna, and the summer festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne, Pesaro, and Salzburg.

Later career[link]

In January 1984, Ramey made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Handel's Rinaldo. He has since become a fixture at the Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the New York City Opera, and the San Francisco Opera.

In the bel canto repertoire, Ramey has excelled in Mozart's Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro and in Rossini's Semiramide, The Barber of Seville, Il Turco in Italia, L'italiana in Algeri; in Donizetti's Anna Bolena and Lucia di Lammermoor and Bellini's I puritani.

In the dramatic repertoire, Ramey has been acclaimed for his "Three Devils": Boito's Mefistofele, Gounod's Faust, and Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust

Other dramatic roles have included Verdi's Nabucco, Don Carlo, I Lombardi and Jérusalem and Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann (portraying all four villains). A number of previously obscure operas with strong bass/bass-baritone roles have been revived solely for Ramey, such as Verdi's Attila, Rossini's Maometto II and Massenet's Don Quichotte.

Recordings[link]

Ramey has made an exceptionally large number of recordings that feature nearly all of his main operatic roles as well as collections of miscellaneous arias, other classical pieces and crossover discs of popular American music. He has also appeared on television and video productions of the Met's productions of Carmen and Bluebeard's Castle, San Francisco's production of Mefistofele, Glyndebourne's production of The Rake's Progress and Salzburg's production of Don Giovanni.

In 1996, Ramey gave a concert at New York's Avery Fisher Hall titled "A Date with the Devil" in which he sang 14 arias representing the core of this repertoire, and he continues to tour this program throughout the world. In 2000, Ramey presented this concert at Munich's Gasteig Concert Hall. This performance was recorded live and was released on compact disc in the northern summer of 2002. In recent years, however, his singing has been criticized for a wobble.

Current activities[link]

Ramey lives in Glenview, Illinois and has participated in some 70 performances a year. He serves as a member of the faculty at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts. He is a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. ^[3]

Notes[link]

1. ^ Ralph Blumenthal, "The Devil? He's a Basso Whose Voice Is Heavenly", The New York Times, February 17, 1998
2. ^ Anthony Tommasini, "An Aw Shucks Manner, but Don't Be Fooled: He's an Absolute Devil", The New York Times, November 5, 1999
3. ^ Delta Omicron

References[link]

• Samuel Ramey's website, samuelramey.com Retrieved 25 January 2010
• Article on Samuel Ramey with Bach cantata recordings, on bach-cantatas.com Retrieved 25 July 2010
• List of "Articles on Samuel Ramey", New York Times Retrieved 25 July 2010

Bibliography[link]

• Samuel Ramey: American Bass, by Jane Scovell, Baskerville Publishers, 2010. ISBN 978-1-880909-76-8

External links[link]

• Samuel Ramey's website

This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (July 2011)

Jens Assur (born April 29, 1970) is a Swedish photographer, director, scriptwriter and film producer.

His movie, Killing the Chickens, to Scare the Monkeys, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 and has since won a number of prestigious prices.

At the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, Jens Assur was given the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award for his movies, The Last Dog in Rwanda, and Killing the Chickens, to Scare the Monkeys, and for the script for his first feature film Close Far Away. Created in 1996 to celebrate 100 years of cinema, the annual award recognizes and supports a visionary filmmaker on his or her next film.^[1]

Early career[link]

Jens Assur started his career at Dagbladet in Sundsvall, as a reporter and photographer, 1986-1990. In 1990-1997 he was employed as a staff photographer at Expressen, a daily newspaper in Scandinavia. He produced several photo essays from Somalia, Rwanda, South Africa and former Yugoslavia amongst other countries earning a Photographer of the year at the age of 23.^[2] In 1997 Assur left Expressen to start his company Studio Jens Assur and worked on art and film projects.^[3]

During the 1990:s Jens Assur was devoted to depict developing countries, but in recent years he has switched focus to the industrialized parts of the world. Examples of these are his works This is My Time, This is My Life, Hunger and Thailand – A Charter Paradise.

In addition to his art and film projects, Jens Assur holds lectures and is featured on news programmes, television shows and in magazines.^[4][5][6]

Work[link]

Photography[link]

• Under the Shifting Skies/Och himlen därovan (1997–2001) is one of the largest such project in Scandinavian history. It comprises two books of 256 pages each and a travelling exhibition with 70 photographic images blown up to 1.5 x 2 meters. The exhibition was itinerant and attracted a record attendance of 80,000 at its opening at Arbetets museum in Norrköping.^[7][8]

• In 1999 Jens work was featured in LIFE magazine in a special-edition issue in connection with the Olympic Games in Sydney.

• This is My Time, This is My Life (2003–2006) depicts Stockholm youth via Polaroid instant images. The exhibition was launched at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, 2006. .^[9][10]

• In 2006, Assur worked for the Swedish Red Cross on their marketing campaign, Victims of War. The project portrayed the daily lives of victims of war in Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo and resulted in a record-breaking fundraising drive.^[11][12][13]

• I Can See the World From Here (2007) was a project based on photos taken with a pocket camera, and was exhibited at Färgfabriken in Stockholm.^[14][15]

• Hunger (2009–2010) was a photographic project that comprises five photography books and was sent to influential public opinion makers ahead of the Swedish general election in 2010 stirring debate in the media. Eventually the project culminated in a 1000-square meters large exhibition at Kulturhuset in Stockholm.^[16][17][18]

• Thailand – A Charter Paradise (2011) is an Artist’s book consisting of handmade photo albums, produced in a limited signed and number edition of 250, focusing on Swedes travels to Thailand.^[19]

Filmography[link]

• The Last Dog in Rwanda (2006), Jens Assur’s writing and directing debut portraying the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the short film was shot in South Africa and Sweden. Two of Sweden’s most acclaimed actors, Reine Brynolfsson and Jonas Karlsson, played the main characters. Drawing from Assur’s experiences as a war photographer, the film won numerous international awards including the Grand Prix at Clermont Ferrand and Best Film at Tribeca Film Festival, as well as prizes at film festivals in Sydney and Rome among others.^{[20][21][22][23][24][25]}
• Killing the Chickens, to Scare the Monkeys (2011) is a short film set in the People's Republic of China. The film was one of 25 films featured at the 2011 Cannes film festival in the Director’s Fortnight category).^[26]

Director and Screenwriter[link]

• 2006 - The Last Dog in Rwanda (short film)
• 2011 – Killing the Chickens, to Scare the Monkeys (short film)

Bibliography[link]

• 2001 - Under the Shifting Skies/Och himlen därovan
• 2010 – Hunger
• 2011 – Thailand – A Charter Paradise

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.indiewire.com/article/jens-assur-is-2012-sundance-nhk-international-filmmaker-award-winner#
2. ^ "Jag var ovän med alla" - DN.SE
3. ^ about
4. ^ Dagens gäst: Fotografen Jens Assur - Gomorron Sverige | SVT Play
5. ^ Möt Jens Assur - Studio Ett | Sveriges Radio
6. ^ Jens Assur
7. ^ Jens Assur - Directors - SF International
8. ^ Jens Assur berättar om vår samtid - Kultur / Nöje - folket.se
9. ^ Tidningen Kulturen - nyhetstidning med kulturell prägel - "Det är viktigt att hitta en grundvision för sitt arbete."
10. ^ Min tid, mitt liv | Nöjesguiden
11. ^ SFI_1-12.pdf
12. ^ Röda Korset - Röda Korset satsar på fotoutställning för krigens offer - Mynewsdesk
13. ^ Hjälp krigets glömda offer | Nyheter | Aftonbladet
14. ^ Jens Assur/I can see the world from here - Kultur - Konst Litteratur Kulturartiklar | Expressen
15. ^ Färgfabriken
16. ^ Jens Assur vänder på begreppet hunger | Kultur | SvD
17. ^ news
18. ^ http://www.kulturhuset.stockholm.se/default.asp?id=3191&domain=&url=default.asp%3Fid%3D33005
19. ^ Jens Assur om sin fotobok: Thailand - A charter Paradise - P3 Planet | Sveriges Radio
20. ^ Den sista hunden i Rwanda (2006) - Awards
21. ^ Tribeca festival awards winners - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety
22. ^ The-Last-Dog-in-Rwanda - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes - NYTimes.com
23. ^ Flickerfest | Short Film Central
24. ^ I premi dell'Arcipelago Film Festival 2007 - CinemaItaliano.info
25. ^ "Den sista hunden i Rwanda" kan få en Oscar - Nöje - www.st.nu
26. ^ Killing the Chickens to Scare the Monkeys | Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

Early photograph of Gioachino Rossini (Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin)

Gioachino Antonio Rossini^[1] (Italian pronunciation: [dʒoaˈkiːno anˈtɔːnjo rosˈsiːni] (Giovacchino Antonio Rossini in the baptismal certificate)^[2] (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces. His best-known operas include the Italian comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola and the French-language epics Moïse et Pharaon and Guillaume Tell (William Tell). A tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, which led to the nickname "The Italian Mozart". Until his retirement in 1829, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history.^[3]

Early life[link]

Portrait of Gioachino Rossini in 1820, International Museum and Library of Music, Bologna

Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro, a town on the Adriatic coast of Italy which was then part of the Papal States. His father, Giuseppe, was a horn player and inspector of slaughterhouses. His mother, Anna, was a singer and a baker's daughter. Rossini's parents began his musical training early, and by the age of six he was playing the triangle in his father's musical group.

Rossini's father was sympathetic to the French Revolution and welcomed Napoleon Bonaparte's troops when they arrived in northern Italy. When Austria restored the old regime, Rossini's father was sent to prison in 1799 where he remained until June 1800.^[4] His mother took him to Bologna, making a living as a leading singer at various theatres of the Romagna region. Her husband would ultimately join her in Bologna. During this time, Rossini was frequently left in the care of his aging grandmother, who had difficulty supervising the boy.

He remained at Bologna in the care of a pork butcher while his father played the horn in the orchestras of the theatres at which his wife sang. The boy had three years of instruction in the playing of the harpsichord from Giuseppe Prinetti, originally from Novara, who played the scale with two fingers only; Prinetti also owned a business selling beer and had a propensity to fall asleep while standing. These qualities made him a subject for ridicule in the eyes of the young Rossini.^[5]

Education[link]

He was eventually taken from Prinetti and apprenticed to a blacksmith. In Angelo Tesei, he found a congenial music master, and learned to sight-read, play accompaniments on the piano and sing well enough to take solo parts in the church when he was ten years of age. Important from this period are six sonate a quattro, or string sonatas, composed in three days, unusually scored for two violins, cello and double bass. The original scores, which dated from 1804 when the composer was twelve, were found in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Often transcribed for string orchestra, these sonatas reveal the young composer's affinity for Haydn and Mozart, already showing signs of operatic tendencies, punctuated by frequent rhythmic changes and dominated by clear, songlike melodies.

In 1805 he appeared at the theatre of the Commune in Ferdinando Paer's Camilla, his only public appearance as a singer. He was also a capable horn player, treading in the footsteps of his father. Around this time, he composed individual numbers to a libretto by Vincenza Mombelli called Demetrio e Polibio, which was handed to the boy in pieces. Though it was Rossini's first opera, written when he was thirteen or fourteen, the work was not staged until the composer was twenty years old, premiering as his sixth official opera.

In 1806 Rossini became a cello student under Cavedagni at the Conservatorio di Bologna. The following year he was admitted to the counterpoint class of Padre Stanislao Mattei (1750–1825). He learned to play the cello with ease, but the pedantic severity of Mattei's views on counterpoint only served to drive the young composer's views toward a freer school of composition. His insight into orchestral resources is generally ascribed not to the strict compositional rules that he learned from Mattei, but to knowledge gained independently while scoring the quartets and symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. At Bologna, he was known as "il Tedeschino" ("the Little German") on account of his devotion to Mozart.

Early career[link]

Through the friendly interposition of the Marquis Cavalli, his first opera, La cambiale di matrimonio (The Marriage Contract), was produced at Venice when he was a youth of 18 years. But two years before this he had already received the prize at the Conservatorio of Bologna for his cantata Il pianto d'Armonia sulla morte d’Orfeo. Between 1810 and 1813 at Bologna, Rome, Venice and Milan, Rossini produced operas of varying success, most notably La pietra del paragone and Il signor Bruschino, with its brilliant and unique overture. In 1813, Tancredi and L'italiana in Algeri were even bigger successes, and catapulted the 20-year-old composer to international fame.

The libretto for Tancredi was an arrangement by Gaetano Rossi of Voltaire's tragedy Tancrède. Traces of Ferdinando Paer and Giovanni Paisiello were undeniably present in fragments of the music. But any critical feeling on the part of the public was drowned by appreciation of such melodies as "Di tanti palpiti... Mi rivedrai, ti rivedrò", which became so popular that the Italians would sing it in crowds at the law courts until called upon by the judge to desist.

Gioachino Rossini, painted c. 1815 by Vincenzo Camuccini

By the age of 21, Rossini had established himself as the idol of the Italian opera public. He continued to write operas for Venice and Milan during the next few years, but their reception was tame and in some cases unsatisfactory after the success of Tancredi. In 1815 he retired to his home in Bologna, where Domenico Barbaia, the impresario of the Naples theatre, contracted an agreement that made him musical director of the Teatro di San Carlo and the Teatro del Fondo at Naples. He would compose one opera a year for each. His payment was to be 200 ducats per month; he was also to receive a share from the gambling tables set in the theatre's "ridotto", amounting to about 1000 ducats per annum. This was an extraordinarily lucrative arrangement for any professional musician at that time.

He visited the Naples conservatory, and, although less than four years senior to Mercadante, he said to the Director Niccolò Zingarelli, "My compliments Maestro – your young pupil Mercadante begins where we finish."^[6]

Some older composers in Naples, notably Zingarelli and Paisiello, were inclined to intrigue against the success of the youthful composer, but all hostility was rendered futile by the enthusiasm that greeted the court performance of his Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, in which Isabella Colbran, who subsequently became the composer's wife, took a leading part. The libretto of this opera by Giovanni Schmidt was in many of its incidents an anticipation of those presented to the world a few years later in Sir Walter Scott's Kenilworth. The opera was the first in which Rossini wrote out the ornaments of the airs instead of leaving them to the fancy of the singers, and also the first in which the recitativo secco was replaced by a recitative accompanied by a string quartet.

[edit] The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia)

Isabella Colbran

Rossini's most famous opera was produced on 20 February 1816, at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. The libretto, a version of Pierre Beaumarchais' stage play Le Barbier de Séville, was newly written by Cesare Sterbini and not the same as that already used by Giovanni Paisiello in his own Barbiere, an opera which had enjoyed European popularity for more than a quarter of a century. Much is made of how quickly Rossini's opera was written, scholarship generally agreeing upon two or three weeks. Later in life, Rossini claimed to have written the opera in only twelve days. It was a colossal failure when it premiered as Almaviva; Paisiello's admirers were extremely indignant, sabotaging the production by whistling and shouting during the entire first act. However, not long after the second performance, the opera became so successful that the fame of Paisiello's opera was transferred to Rossini's, to which the title The Barber of Seville passed as an inalienable heritage.

Later in 1822, a 30-year-old Rossini succeeded in meeting Ludwig van Beethoven, who was then aged 51, deaf, cantankerous and in failing health. Communicating in writing, Beethoven noted: “Ah, Rossini. So you’re the composer of The Barber of Seville. I congratulate you. It will be played as long as Italian opera exists. Never try to write anything else but opera buffa; any other style would do violence to your nature.”^[3]

Marriage and mid-career[link]

Caricature by H. Mailly on the cover of Le Hanneton, July 4, 1867

Between 1815 and 1823 Rossini produced 20 operas. Of these Otello formed the climax to his reform of serious opera, and offers a suggestive contrast with the treatment of the same subject at a similar point of artistic development by the composer Giuseppe Verdi. In Rossini's time the tragic close was so distasteful to the public of Rome that it was necessary to invent a happy conclusion to Otello.

Conditions of stage production in 1817 are illustrated by Rossini's acceptance of the subject of Cinderella for a libretto only on the condition that the supernatural element should be omitted. The opera La Cenerentola was as successful as Barbiere. The absence of a similar precaution in construction of his Mosè in Egitto led to disaster in the scene depicting the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, when the defects in stage contrivance always raised a laugh, so that the composer was at length compelled to introduce the chorus "Dal tuo stellato soglio" to divert attention from the dividing waves.

In 1822, four years after the production of this work, Rossini married the renowned opera singer Isabella Colbran. In the same year, he moved from Italy to Vienna where his operas were the rage of the audiences. He directed his Cenerentola in Vienna, where Zelmira was also performed. After this he returned to Bologna, but an invitation from Prince Metternich to come to Verona and "assist in the general re-establishment of harmony" was too tempting to refuse, and he arrived at the Congress in time for its opening on October 20, 1822. Here he made friends with Chateaubriand and Dorothea Lieven.

In 1823, at the suggestion of the manager of the King's Theatre, London, he came to England, being much fêted on his way through Paris. In England he was given a generous welcome, which included an introduction to King George IV and the receipt of £7000 after a residence of five months. The next year he became musical director of the Théâtre des Italiens in Paris at a salary of £800 per annum. Rossini’s popularity in Paris was so great that Charles X gave him a contract to write five new operas a year, and at the expiration of the contract he was to receive a generous pension for life.

End of career[link]

Gioachino Rossini, photographed by Félix Nadar, 1858

During his Paris years, between 1824 and 1829, Rossini created the comic opera Le Comte Ory and Guillaume Tell (William Tell). The production of the latter in 1829 brought his career as a writer of opera to a close. He was thirty-eight years old and had already composed thirty-eight operas. Guillaume Tell was a political epic adapted from Schiller’s play (1804) about the 13th-century Swiss patriot who rallied his country against the Austrians. The libretto was by Étienne Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, but their version was revised by Armand Marrast.^[7]

The music is remarkable for its freedom from the conventions discovered and utilized by Rossini in his earlier works, and marks a transitional stage in the history of opera, the overture serving as a model for romantic overtures throughout the 19th century. Though an excellent opera, it is rarely heard uncut today, as the original score runs more than four hours in performance. The overture is one of the most famous and frequently recorded works in the classical repertoire.

In 1829 he returned to Bologna. His mother had died in 1827, and he was anxious to be with his father. Arrangements for his subsequent return to Paris on a new agreement were temporarily upset by the abdication of Charles X and the July Revolution of 1830. Rossini, who had been considering the subject of Faust for a new opera, did return, however, to Paris in November of that year.

Six movements of his Stabat Mater were written in 1832 by Rossini himself and the other six by Giovanni Tadolini, a good musician who was asked by Rossini to complete the work. However, Rossini composed the rest of the score in 1841. The success of the work bears comparison with his achievements in opera, but his comparative silence during the period from 1832 to his death in 1868 makes his biography appear almost like the narrative of two lives—the life of swift triumph and the long life of seclusion, of which biographers give us pictures in stories of the composer's cynical wit, his speculations in fish culture, his mask of humility and indifference.

Later years[link]

Gioachino Rossini, photographed by Étienne Carjat, 1865

His first wife died in 1845, and on 16 August 1846, he married Olympe Pélissier, who had sat for Vernet for his picture of Judith and Holofernes. Political disturbances compelled Rossini to leave Bologna in 1848. After living for a time in Florence, he settled in Paris in 1855, where he hosted many artistic and literary figures. Rossini had been a well-known gourmand and an excellent amateur chef his entire life, but he indulged these two passions fully once he retired from composing, and today there are a number of dishes with the appendage "alla Rossini" to their names that were either created by or specifically for him. Probably the most famous of these is Tournedos Rossini, still served by many restaurants today.

In the meantime, after years of various physical and mental illnesses, he had slowly returned to music, composing obscure little works intended for private performance. These included his Péchés de vieillesse ("Sins of Old Age"), which are grouped into 14 volumes, mostly for solo piano, occasionally for voice and various chamber ensembles. Often whimsical, these pieces display Rossini’s natural ease of composition and gift for melody, showing obvious influences of Beethoven and Chopin, with many flashes of the composer’s long buried desire for serious, academic composition. He died at the age of 76 from pneumonia at his country house at Passy on Friday, 13 November 1868. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. In 1887, his remains were moved to the Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze, in Florence, at the request of the Italian government.

Honors and tributes[link]

Rossini's now-empty tomb at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

Rossini was a foreign associate of the institute, grand officer of the Legion of Honour and recipient of innumerable orders.

Immediately after Rossini's death, Giuseppe Verdi proposed to collaborate with twelve other Italian composers on a Requiem for Rossini, to be performed on the first anniversary of Rossini's death, conducted by Angelo Mariani. The music was written, but the performance was abandoned shortly before its scheduled premiere. Verdi re-used the "Libera me, Domine" he had written for the Rossini Requiem in his 1872 Requiem for Manzoni. In 1989 the conductor Helmuth Rilling recorded the original Requiem for Rossini in its world premiere.

In 1900 Giuseppe Cassioli created a monument to Rossini in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.^[8]

Rossiniana[link]

Mauro Giuliani (who died in 1829) wrote six sets of variations for guitar on themes by Rossini, Opp. 119–124 (c. 1820-1828). Each set was called "Rossiniana", and collectively they are called "Rossiniane". This was the first known tribute by one composer to another using a title of the form -ana.

In 1925, Ottorino Respighi orchestrated four pieces from Péchés de vieillesse as the suite Rossiniana (he had earlier used pieces from the same collection as the basis of his ballet La Boutique fantasque).

Notes[link]

Portrait of Gioachino Rossini by Francesco Hayez, 1870.
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

In his compositions, Rossini plagiarized freely from himself, a common practice among deadline-pressed opera composers of the time. Few of his operas are without such admixtures, frankly introduced in the form of arias or overtures. For example, in Il Barbiere there is an aria for the Count (often omitted) "Cessa di più resistere", which Rossini used (with minor changes) in the cantata Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo and in La Cenerentola (the cabaletta for Angelina's rondo is almost unchanged). Moreover, four of his best known overtures (La cambiale di matrimonio, Tancredi, La Cenerentola and The Barber of Seville) share operas apart from those with which they are most famously associated.

A characteristic mannerism in Rossini's orchestral scoring is a long, steady building of sound over an ostinato figure, creating "tempests in teapots by beginning in a whisper and rising to a flashing, glittering storm,"^[9] which earned him the nickname of "Signor Crescendo".

A few of Rossini's operas remained popular throughout his lifetime and continuously since his demise; others were resurrected from semi-obscurity in the last half of the 20th century, during the so-called "bel canto revival."

Rossini's final resting place, in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence

According to Herbert Weinstock's 1968 biography (see below), the composer's estate was valued at 2.5 million francs upon his death in 1868, the equivalent of about 1.4 million US dollars. Apart from some individual legacies in favour of his wife and relatives,^[10] Rossini willed his entire estate to the Commune of Pesaro.^[11] The inheritance was invested to establish a Liceo Musicale (Conservatory) in the town. When, in 1940, the Liceo was put under state control and turned into the Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Gioachino Rossini", the corporate body to which Rossini’s inheritance had been conveyed, assumed the style of Fondazione G. Rossini. The ends of the institution which is still in full activity, are to support the Conservatorio initiatives and to promote the study and the spread worldwide of the figure, the memory and the works of Rossini. The institution has collaborated since the beginning with the Rossini Opera Festival.^[12]

Rossini's estate also provided funding for the Prix Rossini, a prize to be awarded to young composers and librettist. The provision took effect in 1878 on the death of his widow and was awarded by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Prize-winning works were produced by the Société des Concerts, Institut de France, from 1885 to 1911.^[13]

Works[link]

References[link]

Notes

Sources

• Faul, Michel (2009), Les aventures militaires, littéraires et autres d'Étienne de Jouy, Editions Seguier, France, March 2009, ISBN 978-2-84049-556-7
• Fisher, Burton D., The Barber of Seville (Opera Classics Library Series). Grand Rapids: Opera Journeys, 2005. ISBN 1-930841-96-5 ISBN 1-930841-96-5
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Material now in the public domain is incorporated into this article.
• Gossett, Philip, "Rossini, Gioachino" in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, 17 November 2009
• Osborne, Richard, Rossini: His Life and Works. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007 ISBN 978-1-55553-088-4
• Holoman, D. Kern (2004), The Societ́e ́des concerts du conservatoire, 1828-1967. University of California Press ISBN 0-520-23664-5 ISBN 9780520236646
• Osborne, Richard, "Rossini" in The Musical Times, Vol. 127, No. 1726 (December 1986), 691 (Musical Times Publications Ltd.) Access online
• (Italian) Radiciotti, Giuseppe, Gioacchino Rossini: vita documentata, opere ed influenza su l'arte, Tivoli, Majella, 1927-1929
• Steen, Michael, The Lives and Times of the Great Composers NY: Oxford University Press, 2004 ISBN 1-84046-679-0 ISBN 1-84046-679-0
• Weinstock, Herbert, Rossini: A Biography. New York, Knopf, 1968 ISBN 0-87910-102-4 ISBN 0-87910-102-4

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gioachino Rossini

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gioachino Rossini

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Gioachino Antonio Rossini

• Gioachino Rossini biography
• Fondazione G. Rossini
• List and text of the songs on the website of the German Rossini Society
• Rossini Opera Festival
• Rossini in Wildbad – Belcanto opera festival
• The Center for Italian Opera Studies: Rossini critical edition
• [3] – Riccardo Caramella performs Quatre Mendiants, Quatre hors d'oeuvres

Texts, books

• Memoirs of Rossini by Marie Henri Beyle, Gioacchino Rossini, published in 1824
• Books with "Rossini" as author (at Google Books)
• Books with occurrences of "Rossini" (at Google Books)
• Texts with occurrences of "Rossini" (at archive.org)
• Works by or about Gioachino Rossini in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• La vie de Rossini (fr) by Stendhal, tome I (at gutenberg.org)
• La vie de Rossini (fr) by Stendhal, tome II (at gutenberg.org)

Scores (sheetmusic)

• Free scores by Gioachino Rossini in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Rossini at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Gioachino Rossini in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Gioachino Rossini

Historical recordings

• Rossini cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.

Films

• Gioachino Rossini at the Internet Movie Database

Performance

• Recent and future performances of Rossini operas from Operabase

Images

• 1867 Caricature of Rossini by André Gill