Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 133
133.—ROSSINI AND THE ITALIAN SCHOOL.
It is the fashion nowadays, by the admirers of the modern school of opera, to deride the works of Rossini and the Italian school. They point out his lack of dramatic truth, his sacrifice of the sense to the music. Still there has perhaps never lived a man who could excel him as a writer of bel canto.
The faults of Rossini's music were faults not of the man, but of the time. Rossini was, in his way, a reformer. Prior to his time the composer had been at the mercy of the singer, but with Rossini a new era dawned. He wrote not only the framework of his music, leaving the soloist to ornament at pleasure, but the whole aria, note for note, and insisted that it should be sung as written.
Then he had faith in himself and his music. He knew he was ahead of the public, and he did not drop back to keep pace with them. When, at the first appearance of "The Barber of Seville," the audience expressed its disapproval of certain innovations, Rossini shrugged his shoulders, went home and went to sleep. When "La Donna del Lago" was pronounced an utter failure, Rossini openly and loudly proclaimed it a complete success. When "La Gazza Ladra" did not meet the approval of the critics, and he was accused of violating the rules of musical grammar, he retorted:
"So much the worse for the grammar. Reform your grammar; it must be defective."
He might have said "so much the worse for the critics," for the public soon recognized the beauty of the works in question, and Rossini, next to Verdi, ranks as the typical Italian composer.