816 



ROSSINI 



ROSTOCK 



Economy at the College tie France. For bin Court de 

 Drmt Conttitutionnel( 1836) lie was imturaliw.il and 

 made a member of the Chamber of peers. He was 

 sent to Rome as ambassador in 1845, and there 

 witnessed all the event* of 1848, having again 

 become an Italian subject after the fall of Louis- 

 Philippe. When railed in the ministry l>y l'in> 

 IX. Rossi strove to oppose the party favourable to 

 the House of Savoy, and devised ah alliance with 

 Naples, his object (wing a confederation of Italian 

 princes with the pope as president. ThU roused 

 the hatred of the Romans, and Rossi wait stabbed 

 to death by an unknown hand on the 15th Novem- 

 ber 1848. 



Rossini, OIOACCHINO ANTONIO, Italian operatic 

 composer, was born at Pesaro, on the Adriatic, 

 February 29, 1792, and was the only child of 

 Giuseppe Rossini, town tnimpeter and inspector 

 of slaughter-houses, from whom he inherited his 

 brightness and humour. From the age of seven he 

 studied music and singing at Kolomna under various 

 masters, till in 1807, after having appeared as con- 

 ductor of the local Accademia del ( 'onconli, he 

 entered the Bologna Liceo, or conservatorium. He 

 soon became known in neighbouring town- as 

 accompanist at the theatres, travelling along with 

 hi* father, now a horn-player. Numerous o]>eratic 

 works, mostly successful, were written for the 

 theatres at Venire. Botook, Koine, &c. ; at Milan, 

 in 1812, Lit Pirtrti </< I'm <i<inin made a great im- 

 pression, and gained the com|>oer exemption from 

 the French conscription. Next year Tancrtdi, at 

 Venice, created tin- wihle-t excitement, which soon 

 spread over Italy. After producing several other 

 works, now mostly forgotten, he was engaged as 

 musical director of the San Carlo and Del rondo 

 theatres at Naples. On February 5, 1816, was 

 brought out at the Argentine theatre in limn.- 

 // Barbiere di Seviglia, founded on lieaumardiai-' 

 play, and written in thirteen days. From the 

 predilection of the Roman* for the aged Paesiello, 

 who had written an opera on the same play, and 

 from a series of ludicrous accidents, it resulted 

 on the first night in a complete fiasco ; but next 

 night, after tin- first act had Iwen fairly heard, the 

 public in their entlm-iasm proceeded to Rossini's 

 house, an. I conducted him to the theatre in triumph ; 

 and its popularity incica-rd with each succeeding 

 repre-eniai ion. Of all liis works it luus the prospect 

 of most lasting vitality, and in its complete accord 

 with the libretto is tin- most perfect as a whole. 

 Otellii next came out in Naples, and marked an 

 advance in the style of serious opera, but wax not 

 at first successful ; the tragedy was too somlire. 

 The comic ' V. /.//, in IslT, wits favourably 

 received in Rome, and immediately thereafter I.H 

 Gazzn Linlrii obtained a triumph at Milan. 

 These were rapidly followed at Naples by Armnln 

 and Most in Egitto (1818), La Donna M Laqo 

 (1819), and Maometto Setondo ( 1820). In 1H21 he 

 married Isabella Colhran, who had sung frequently 

 in his operas, and the two proceeded to \ ienna, 

 where his mn-ic ami his attractive personality 

 carried all before him, in spite of some Utter 

 opjMisition. After his return to llologna. .sV///uv(. 

 MM WM written in 1823 for the Fenice Theatre. 

 Venice; hut though the greatest, or at least the 

 most advanced, of his Italian works, it had only a 

 lukewarm reception it was too heavy for the 

 Venetians. Invited to London, he and his wife on 

 their way thither paid their first visit to Paris. 

 where he had HO cordial a reception that he resolved 

 to return. In England he was welcomed with the 

 greatest favour l>v the king and the aristocracy, 

 but produced no new work, though much was said 

 of an opera intended for the King's Theati>- 



On his return to Paris lie entered on the 

 duties of director of the Theatre Italicn for 



eighteen months; and, though not exactly the 

 man for such a post, he had the credit of 

 engaging several famous singers, and produced 

 some of hia already written operas, as well as 

 Meyerbeer's Croeiato. Retained in the service nf 

 the king, he went on to adapt several of his wi.ik- 

 to French taste: Maunnitu, appearing in its new 

 shafie as Le Siige tie i vw*M . Mmx? .- and Le 

 ComteeTOry, new, but worked up from old material. 

 After an interval of a year, spent in retirement and 

 study, there appeared at the Academic, on August 

 3, IH'-XJ, his greatest work, Uiiilldinnr Tell, con 

 ceived and written in a style entirely different from 

 and superior to that of his Italian operas, and more 

 nearly conforming to modern dramatic ideas, lu 

 success was immediate and immense, Inn, chiefly 

 owing to the wretched libretto, not lasting. Fimii 

 this period till his death his pen wa.- scarcely more 

 than once again resumed ; except a few trifles, its 

 only product was the Stabat Muter, first given in 

 1841, highly attractive and always popular, but 

 little in keeping with the majestic sadness of tin- 

 subject. After the decision, in his favour, of a 

 tedious lawsuit, he retired in 1836 to liologna, to 

 comfort the last years of his father, and to bestow 

 the utmost care on the Liceo, which lie raised to a 

 high position as a school of music. His wife died 

 in 1845, and in 1847, after he had married again, 

 revolutionary disturbances drove him from Ilologna 

 to Florence. In 1855 he returned to Paris, and in 

 hi- villa at Passy became one of the most noted 

 and attractive personalities of the capital. He died 

 there, November 13, 1868. He stands at the lie.-id 

 of Italian composers for the stage, though Yerdi 

 has now far wider popularity and greater dramatic 

 force and passion, and though only a few of lii.s 

 operas still hold the field above all, the /;//.,/. 

 Semiramide, and William Tell. His early works 

 would now sound strangely old fashioned, but he 

 led the way in reform and" progress up to modern 

 ideas. While all his improvements had been 

 where anticipated by Mozart, and some of his 

 devices were very transparent and soon became 

 hackneyed, the taste of the audiences I'm whom 

 he wrote must not be forgotten in estimating his 

 music. The greatest of his varied gifts was an 

 inexhaustible facility in creating melodies which at 

 once delight the car an unacquirahle possession, 

 and the first requisite of a great composer ; and 

 though he did not use nil the means available in 

 hi- art. the splendid results he obtained are perhaps 

 on that account even the more remarkable. 



See the biography by H. S. Edwards (1869), the same 

 author's shorter Life in the 'Great Magicians' series 

 i l-s| ), and the more extensive French work of M. 

 Azevedo (1865). There are also works on Kossini by 

 M<mtr,)ii<i, Zanolini ( 1875), and Sittard (1882). 



Rosso Antico. See PORPHVKY. 

 Koss-sliir>. See Ross AMI C'ROMARTY. 



Roster (corrupted from Register) is a list of 

 individuals, or corps, kept by the various staff 

 ollicers of the army to ensure the allotment ot 

 duties in proper rotation. Thus officers are d.< 

 tailed in turn for guard, court-martini, or other 

 duties, according to the district, garrison, or i 

 mental roster. Regiments, battalions, and batteries 

 take their turn of foreign service according to the 

 adjutant -general's rosier. 



Rostock, the most important town of Mecklen- 

 burg Schwei in, and one of the busiest imrts on the 

 Maltic, stands on the Warnow, 7 miles from its 

 mouth and 60 miles by rail NK. of Schwerin. It 

 coii-ist of the city proper, surrounded by promen- 

 ades on the site of the old fortifications, and 

 suburlw which have grown up beyond them. It 

 has busy fairs for wool, horses, and cattle ; import* 

 coal, wine, herrings, petroleum, groceries, timber, 



