Shortly before Christmas Rossini left Naples For Rome to write and bring out two works for which he was under engagement. The first of these, 'Torvaldo e Dorliska,' produced at the Featro Valle, Dec. 26, 1815, was coldly received, but the second, 'Almaviva, ossia L'inutile precauzione,' founded on Beaumarchais' 'Barber of Seville,' by Sterbini, which made its first appearance at the Argentina Feb. 5, 1816, was unmistakeably damned. The cause of this was the predilection of the Romans for Paisiello, and their determination to make an example of an innovator who had dared to reset a libretto already treated by their old favourite. Rossini, with excellent taste and feeling, had inquired of Paisiello, before adopting the subject, whether his doing so would annoy the veteran, whose 'Barbiere' had been for a quarter of a century the favourite of Europe, and not unnaturally believed that after this step he was secure from the illwill of Paisiello's friends and admirers.[1] But the verdict of a theatre crammed with partisans is seldom just. It is also as changeable as the winds, or as Fortune herself. Though hissed on the first night, 'Almaviva' was listened to with patience on the second, advanced in favour night by night, and ended by becoming, under the title of 'The Barber of Seville,' one of the most popular comic operas ever composed, and actually eclipsing in spirit and wit the comedy on which it is founded. It was acted by Giorgi-Righetti (Rosina), Rossi (Berta), Zamboni (Figaro), Garcia (Almaviva), Botticelli (Bartolo) and Vitarelli (Basilio). The original overture was lost, and the present one belongs to 'Elisabetta'; the opening of the cavatina 'Ecco ridente' is borrowed from the opening of the first chorus in 'Aureliano.' It is in the delicious andante of this cavatina that Rossini first employs the modulation to the minor third below, which afterwards became so common in Italian music. The air of Berta, 'Il vechiotto cerca moglie,' was suggested by a Russian tune, and the eight opening bars of the trio 'Zitti, zitti' are notoriously taken note for note from Simon's air in Haydn's 'Seasons.' Indeed it is astonishing that, with his extraordinary memory, his carelessness, and his habitual hurry, Rossini should not have borrowed oftener than he did. He received 400 scudi (£80) for 'The Barber,' and it was composed and mounted in a month. When some one told Donizetti that it had been written in thirteen days, 'Very possible,' was his answer, 'he is so lazy.'
Lazy as he was, Rossini was destined to write twenty operas in eight years, 1815–1823. On his return to Naples after the Carnival of 1816, and the gradual success of 'The Barber,' he found the San Carlo theatre in ashes, to the great distress of the King of Naples, who justly considered it one of the ornaments of his capital. Barbaja, however, undertook to rebuild it more magnificently than before in nine months. He kept his word, and thus acquired not only the protection but the favour of the king. Rossini obtained the same boon by composing a grand cantata entitled 'Teti e Peleo' for the marriage of the Duchess de Berry. No sooner had he completed this than he dashed off a 2-act comic opera entitled 'La Gazzetta' to a libretto by Tottola, which was produced at the Teatro dei Fiorentini, Naples, and which, although in the hands of a clever and charming actress like Chambrand, and of two such public favourites as Pellegrini and Casaccia, was but moderately successful. The work however contained some admirable passages, which were afterwards utilised by the composer. Rossini completed his reform of serious opera by his 'Otello,' which was brought out at the Teatro del Fondo, Naples, in the autumn of 1816, with Isabella Colbran, Nozzari, Davide, Cicimarra, and Benedetti as its interpreters. In this opera, of which the third act is the finest, the recitatives are fewer and shorter than before, and, in accompanying them, the wind instruments are occasionally added to the strings. Some of the most remarkable features of this grand work, such as the finale of the first act, the duet 'Non m'inganno,' and the passionate trio of defiance, were not at first appreciated: the touching air of Desdemona, 'Se il padre,' doubly effective after the paternal curse which precedes it, and the romance of the Willow, with the harp accompaniment—then quite a novelty—were better received; but the tragic termination of the whole was very distasteful to the public, and when the opera was taken to Rome, it was found necessary to invent a happy conclusion. This curious fact deserves mention for the light which it throws on the low condition of dramatic taste in Italy at that period.
The machinery, and power of rapidly changing the scenes, were at that time so very imperfect in smaller Italian theatres, that Rossini would only accept the subject of Cinderella when proposed to him by the manager of the Teatro Valle at Rome, on condition that the supernatural element was entirely omitted. A new comic piece was therefore written by Ferretti under the title of 'Cenerentola, ossia la bontà in trionfo'; Rossini undertook it, and it was produced at the beginning of 1817. Its success, was unmistakeable, though the cast was by no means extraordinary—Giorgi, Catarina Rossi, Guglielmi, De Begnis, Verni, and Vitarelli.
In the profusion and charm of its ideas this delicious work is probably equal to the 'Barbière,' but it appears to us to be inferior in unity of style. No doubt this is partly owing to the fact that many of the pieces were originally composed to other words than those to which they are now sung. The duet 'Un soave non sò chè,' the drinking-chorus, and the mock proclamation of the Baron, are all borrowed from 'La Pietra del Paragone'; the air 'Miei rampolli' is from 'La Gazzetta,' where it was inspired by the words 'Una prima ballerina'; the air of Ramiro recalls that to 'Ah! vieni' in
- ↑ We have Rossini's own authority for this, and for the opera having been written in 13 days, in his letter to M. Scitivauz. See 'Musical World,' Nov. 6, 1875, p. 751.
