Gioachino Rossini

Gioachino Rossini was an Italian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic period, active chiefly in opera. Born in Pesaro in 1792 and trained in Bologna, he wrote nearly forty operas across serious and comic genres, among them The Barber of Seville, La Cenerentola, Semiramide and, in French for Paris, Guillaume Tell. He served as a music director in Naples and later directed the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. Between his Naples years and his Paris appointment he undertook a celebrated festival season in Vienna (1822), where he met Beethoven, and a lucrative London concert season under royal patronage (1823-1824). He largely ceased composing operas after 1829, producing sacred and vocal works including the Stabat Mater and Petite messe solennelle. He divided his later years between Italy and France, dying at Passy near Paris in 1868.