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Hello and welcome to the Insights and Sounds podcast, a podcast centered around classical music. Join Dr. John Sinclair, and explore composers past and present, their works, and an occasional classical music informational episode.
Rossini Transcript
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Dr. Sinclair: [00:00:00] Hello, good people. I can't wait to share with you some information about Rossini and his Petite Messe Salonale. At age 37, Giacochino Rossini had just finished his very successful opera, William Tell, and then he simply stopped composing. The only major works he wrote during the 39 remaining years of his life were his Stabat Mater and his Petite Messe Salonelle, with the latter being the main subject of this episode.
This is unique for the composer to stop writing. There's not really anything comparable in music history. Now, why would the most famous opera composer of his generation just quit writing music? Speculations vary from he no longer needed the money, he was very wealthy, having an estate valued at 1. 5 million in 1868, equivalency to over 33 million today.
Or maybe he stopped composing because of his ill health. He'd been suffering from the results of hard [00:01:00] living as a young man. More on that story to follow. Or was Rossini just being lazy? An often told story is that Rossini was composing in bed and the music fell on the floor, and rather than retrieve the paper, he just started over.
Another possible reason could be Rossini and Europe were outgrowing comic opera by beginning to embrace dramatic works, and he wanted to be taken more seriously. He was also tired of being on the road and wanted to capitalize on his well earned success. Now let's talk a little bit about his personal life, especially since his early womanizing ended up causing many of his illnesses that plagued his later life.
Opera houses during his time were known for their hanky panky and evidently the casting couch was prevalent. For Rossini, the extracurricular activities began early. It is gonorrhea at age 15 or 16. Isabella Colbren was the most famous singer of his time. In all of Italy, perhaps [00:02:00] Europe and their past crossed often.
And by age 23, he had written as many as 15 operas with her voice in mind. She was his muse and he considered her the best interpreter of his music. She was seven years, his senior, but they fell in love. And after years of dating, they were married in 1822. Now, interestingly, during their courtship, her voice was starting to fail.
And within two years of being married, she retired from singing. Isabella traveled to the great cities of Europe with Rossini. And while they worked well together, evidently the marriage was not a happy one. It seems that he had began to tire of Isabella. And after her career ended, she began gambling and excessive drinking. It is believed Rossini had a few affairs, and they eventually separated, and he found a mistress, Olympe Pellissy.
After Isabella's death in 1845, they married. This was not believed to really be a sexual relationship [00:03:00] given his extensive medical issues. She served him more as companion and nurse. And she had just left a difficult life as a high paid courtesan. So it seemed to be a relationship based on mutual dependence and devotion.
But they did remain together the remaining 22 years of his life. Now, without being too graphic, Rossini suffered with, in his words, quote, plumbing problems. He described the treatments to include catheters, leeches, other medical interventions of his time, which were probably worse than the condition probably equally debilitating was severe depression and terrible insomnia.
Now let's go back to Isabella for a moment. Her last years were tragic. Even though she was financially provided for by her father's estate and Rossini, her primary illness, Pelvic inflammatory disease was painful. It was an effect of the gonorrhea she most likely contracted from Rossini. Interestingly, Isabella lived the rest of her life with Rossini's father.
When [00:04:00] she was on her deathbed, Rossini traveled to say goodbye to her. And the last word Isabella uttered was Rossini's name. It appears she loved him to the end. Now Miss Pellissi, and he traveled and lived in numerous places. Both to stay away from the activity of the revolution surrounding the unification of Italy, But also to find locations for treatment or to elevate his mood.
His travel was arduously slow because he refused to travel by train or steamboats. He was fearful of both and wrote about that often, and it wasn't long. In 1832, he was nearly an invalid, living in Olamp's apartment in Paris. Well, there he was, visited by composer friends, Meyerbeer, Liszt, even an admiring young composer with the name Felix Mendelssohn.
Plus, his many friends, such as French author Balzac, was a regular visitor. Incidentally, Balzac had a fling with Olamp before she knew Rossini. And while they were dealing with his medical conditions, the couple seemed to have [00:05:00] time to host parties and enjoyed their favorite pastime, eating.
Rossini prided himself as a gourmand. Quote, I know of no more admirable occupation than eating. That is really eating. Appetite If for the stomach, what love is for the heart, the stomach is the conductor who rolls the grand orchestra of our passions and rouses it to action. The longing personify the empty stomach for me.
The stomach replete on the other hand is the triangle of enjoyment or the kettledrum of joy, eating, loving, singing, and then digesting are in truth, the four acts of a comic opera known as life, and they pass like the bubbles of the bottle of champagne, whoever let them break. Without having enjoyed them is a complete fool.
End of quote. He also loved his wine. As confirmed by a gift of splendid grapes from Baron Rothschild, Rossini thanked him and then reminded him that he didn't like his wine and pills. So thus the next gift was the [00:06:00] wine. .
Rossini was a character with a personality as large as he was in his later life. His approximately five foot, six inch frame weighed over 300 pounds. Now, I have long been amused by the wit and often strong opinions associated with Rossini. So, before we delve into the mass, allow me to share a few stories about this great composer, which will hopefully help to explain the rather quirkiness of this work.
Rossini was no fan of Wagner. When asked by composer friend Meyerbeer what he thought of Tannhauser, Rossini replied it was a work you would need to hear more than once, and one time was enough for me. And when visited by a friend, ,, it was noticed that the score of Taunhauser was sitting upside down on his piano.
When his friend began to turn it right side up, Rossini stopped him saying, I played it right side up, and then determined it sounded better upside down. Mr. Rossini supposedly wrote the Barber of Seville opera in 13 days, while in his dressing gown and unshaven. A friend wrote, saying how ironic [00:07:00] it should be that he write the Barber of Seville without shaving.
His reply was, quote, If I had shaved, I would have gone out, and if I'd gone out, I wouldn't have come back to finish the opera. Composing must have really come easily for him. He would tell friends, quote, Give me a laundry list, and I'll set it to music. And one of my favorite stories involves a street musician, and his hurdy gurdy, or as we call him today, an organ grinder.
After hearing a competitor's piece being played, Rossini paid the young musician enough money to have a new organ barrel made with one of his arias, and then he paid him enough to go play his music outside the window of the competitive composer. , telling the young man it will help the other composer to learn how to write music.
Giacchino Rossini could be charming and could deliver sarcastic and brutal blows . And one was never sure which person you were going to get, as demonstrated by these next two examples. When an oboe player in an orchestra Rossini was conducting played an F sharp instead of an F natural, Rossini corrected him and added, quote, as regards to the F sharp, don't [00:08:00] worry about it.
We'll find somewhere else to fit that note in. And when an aspiring composer asked Rossini . To decide which of his two works was best, the young man sat at the piano, began playing through the first composition, and just as it finished, Rossini raised his hand and said, You don't need to play anymore. I prefer the second piece.
Well, in a letter written in 1817 to artist and friar Leopoldo Cicconani, They were complaining about the current state of music in Italy. Rossini writes, quote, Many of our singers outside of Italy have renounced purity of musical taste, which never found roots beyond the confines of Italy. They return to Italy bringing and spreading their germs of bad taste.
Warbling, leaps, trills, jumps, abuses of semitones, clusters of notes, these characterize a singing that now prevails. And the populace meantime, Applauding such bad style. Once again, a man with strong opinions. Another letter to a fellow [00:09:00] composer on how to write an overture was quote, wait until the evening before opening night.
Nothing primes inspiration more than necessity. Whether it be the presence of a copyist waiting for your work or the prodding of an impresario tearing out his hair. In my time, all the impresarios in Italy were bald by 30. Rossini said he had only cried three times in his life. Firstly, when my first opera failed, he said.
Secondly, when a truffled turkey fell into the water. And the third time when I was privileged to hear Paganini play. A bit of a sad story to end our discussion of Rossini's persona. It involves Rossini's description of when he visited Beethoven in 1822. , he tells the story that he, quote, climbed stairs to a poor lodging where he found himself in an unkept attic type apartment with crevices visible in the roof.
When I entered, Beethoven paid no attention but remained bent over his work until he finished. Then lifting his [00:10:00] head, he spoke to me. In reasonably good Italian, a Rossini. You're the composer of the Barber of Seville. My congratulations. That is an excellent opera buffa. I have read it with pleasure and I enjoyed myself.
It will be played as long as Italian opera exists. But the advice Beethoven gave Rossini was to never try his hand at anything but opera buffa. And much of their meeting had to be conducted in writing, since Beethoven could not hear well. Rossini admired his genius, and when he did so, Beethoven replied with a deep sigh, exclaiming his unhappiness.
him out, and Rossini walked down the dilapidated stairs, he said he could not repress his tears. Not because of Beethoven's assessment of his music, because of the master's dreadful living conditions. While it's interesting, and we could spend the entire podcast on Rossini's wit and personal life, let's now return to the topic of Petite Messe Salonelle.
The [00:11:00] work was written for the consecration of Countess Louise Palais Ville's personal chapel in Paris. The mass was written during the summer of 1863, and the premiere was on March 14, 1864, before a small audience, which included composer friends, Meyerbeer, Albert, and Thomas, and the work was performed the following day to a larger audience, including press.
Word spread quickly about a new sacred work by Rossini. And he was asked to orchestrate it to make it more a concert piece, instead of a chamber work, whose accompaniment was originally written for two pianos and a harmonium, a small pump organ. At first, Rossini resisted orchestrating his mass, saying he was old and tired.
But in 1866, he finally agreed to orchestrate it out of the fear of composers like Berlioz or Adolf Sachs. would add saxophones to his orchestration. Quote, they'd want to orchestrate my mass, killing my vocal lines and thus killing me [00:12:00] also. While it checks the boxes for being able to be performed by large choir and orchestra, it takes away the intimacy that Rossini intended for the work.
In a letter to composer Franz Liszt in June of 1865, he wrote, They would like me to orchestrate it to perform it in some Paris cathedral. I am loath to undertake such a work, having put all my scant musical knowledge into the composition, and having worked on it with true religious devotion. Well, he did orchestrate it, but it was never performed in public during his lifetime.
And I personally don't see the orchestra version provides an improvement. And Rossini himself admitted he preferred the work in its original form. And that is how you'll hear the examples today. He later wrote composer Franz Liszt for more.
Then to be cordial, this had just taken on an ecclesiastical career in Rome, and he wanted list to advocate to Pope Pius the ninth to allow women to sing in church. He wrote, quote, could I. Ever consent to hearing my poor notes sung out of tune by Boy Sopranos rather than by women who are educated for [00:13:00] sacred music and who with their pure well pitched voices could represent musically speaking Heavenly angels.
, while ROI believed women should be able to sing in church, his letter to list and one written to the Pope himself were not altruistic. You see male sopranos and altos were becoming very difficult to find given the church edict opposing castratis.
So if women couldn't sing in church, then his mass would simply not be performed well. He did eventually receive a letter signed by the Pope, but there was no mention of his request.
Now, let's examine the work itself. This mass has 12 movements, with 7 movements written for choral ensemble, and the rest for solos, both vocal and instrumental. Now, if you're not especially knowledgeable about the parts of a mass or the meaning of the text, no worries. Just listen to this great music, and enjoy it, and when you have some time, I would encourage you to look up the Latin musical mass and the meaning of the text.
But this shouldn't interfere with [00:14:00] anything you're going to hear today. The opening movement, Kyrie, has drama from the outset. The work starts with two gentle chords before launching into a dance like ostinato in the piano with striking chromaticism underneath a rather traditional style vocal counterpoint.
Then the unaccompanied Christe Eleison sounds like it's right out of the Renaissance, but then quickly returns to the theatrical, rhythmic outburst. Kyrie eleison.
The energetic yet dignified Gloria is short lived before giving way to a lyrical quartet section, followed by a short ritonello or return to the Gloria.
The dramatic bass solo on the Grazia text develops into an elegant trio for alto tenor bass before giving way to a cheerful accompaniment for a tenor solo singing the Domine [00:15:00] Deus. The following duet for soprano and alto is given melodic lines with operatic flair.
The Qui tollis is a beautiful flowing bel canto style soprano alto duet, complete with fluid melodic lines and an operatic flare.
The Coney on movement presents elegant counterpoint between the bass vocalist and a really interesting, unique piano accompaniment.
A masterfully written and rousing Cum Sancto Spiritus has choral contrapuntal writing like that of Bach and Handel, but with a triumphal feel, and the Amen section seems to hint at Romantic era sound. It is in this movement that Rossini demonstrates his considerable, and I mean considerable, polyphonic writing chops.
Credo movements are often rather mundane in [00:16:00] mass settings. But not here. I can only imagine how composers must have dreaded setting music to so much text. But Rossini's treatment of this section is rhythmic and vibrant, and it varies as it switches between quartet and full choir. The dotted rhythms add to the dramatic effect.
Now what follows is an unusual and perhaps even uncomfortable treatment of the Crucifixus text. By having it uncharacteristically More melancholic than somber. That there is a strange beauty in lyricism present.
The often celebratory musical treatment of the yet resurrected text here seems more foreboding than joyously exclaiming Christ's ascension. This movement concludes with a complex and formidable amen statement, which finally brings the good [00:17:00] news of the resurrection.
The Preludio Religioso is a profound, beautiful solo episode for piano. A crowning moment of the work, frankly. Its fugue subject begins with the same intervals as the G minor fugue from Book 1 of the Well Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach. Composers ever heard this work, but this episode sounds like it could easily have inspired Chopin. In this recording, it is beautifully played by Gloria Cook.
The song two section is a gorgeously expressive a cappella section that moves from a plaintive expression to a heroic one as it weaves between choral singing and solo voices.
The Benedictus demonstrates the side of Italian opera of the early Romantic [00:18:00] period that still relies heavily on the dramatic aria, which hints of Romantic era leader.
And now we arrive at the last movement, the Agnus Dei. Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world has for me an aspect that foreshadows the theatrical and tragic moments that you find in Verdi's Requiem. The expression of the music juxtaposes strong rhythmic writing for an alto solo and then pits it against the choir's beautiful Dona Nobis Pacem.
Let there be peace. The ending is truly puzzling. It appears to be intentionally humorous and always leaves me wondering if we've gotten to the end.
It is always important for me to remember that Rossini was first and foremost an opera composer.
So regardless of text or even Rossini's attempt at [00:19:00] writing religious music, his music always has elements of his operatic style. The work was of a religious man, not an overt believer, but one with strong faith. When Rossini was on his deathbed and a priest was administering the last rites, the priest asked if he accepted God.
To which Rossini replied, would I have been able to write the Stabat Mater or my Mass if I had not had faith? Just like the Stop It Modder. What makes these two major choral works unique is that Rossini's compositional prowess and his flair for the dramatic is on full display. He demonstrates his exemplary skills writing for the voice and his melodic sense.
It is all vintage Rossini. All this while bringing forth his faith which makes this work like none other in the choral repertoire. Rossini kept his mass under his control and refused to allow it to be [00:20:00] published only after his death was it made available to the public.
And during a performance of this mass, I told the audience it was about as much fun as you could have legally. Well, the Orlando Sentinel's cultural commentator and critic, Matt Palm, captured the Mass perfectly and cleverly when he reacted to my comment and wrote,
quote, I don't know about that, but it may be as much fun as you can have with a musical Mass. Without the Inquisition knocking at your door. Written 22 years apart, the Petit Messe Salonel is interesting and quite different from the Stabat Mater. Firstly, it's not petite given it's 80 minutes of music, nor is it solemn in a traditional sense.
One could make an argument that the meager accompaniment forces explain his petite designation and the solemn title speaks to its dramatic content. But one thing for sure, [00:21:00] it was a very personal work. and express the hopes and joys of a devout man. While he wrote that this work was the last sin of his old age, in seriousness, one could look at this work as his own testament of creed.
A fellow composer who heard the march performance in 1864 wrote, quote, This time Rossini has surpassed himself, for no one can tell what is the most impressive, his learning or his inspiration, end of quote. And finally, at the end of his mass, Mr. Rossini writes a postscript. Quote, Dear God, here it is. This poor little mass.
Is this sacred music? Or have I written damned music? I was born for opera buffa, as you well know. A little skill, a little heart. That's all I have. Be merciful then admit me to [00:22:00] paradise.
I very much hope you've enjoyed hearing about Rossini's unique petite messes Solanel, and I hope that you will continue to visit us for our insights and sounds podcast. Check out insights and sounds. com. And for the program notes, remember the power music belongs to each of us. And I'm always so grateful for the privilege of your time, wishing you great listening, and thank you for listening all my best.