Music...

Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868)

Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born in Pesaro, Italy on February 29, 1792.

 (Information taken from Making Music Fun.com)

Rossini was born into a musical family. At the age of six he was already playing the triangle in his father's band. Due to bad decisions of his father, his father went to jail and his mother moved them all to Bologna to support them as an opera singer. Rossini, as a child, preformed as an apprentice opera performer and later entered the Conservatory of Bologna to study cello and composition. Because Rossini was so taken with the music of Mozart his fellow classmates called him, "the little German."

By the early 1820's Rossini had been appointed the Director of the San Carlo Theater in Naples. During his 19 years in this position, he wrote 36 operas that are full of humor and beautiful melodies. Then suddenly he stopped writing music. For the next 40 years of his life he did not compose at all.

Rossini died on November 13, 1868. His most successful and best known works include his operas The Barber of Seville completed at the age of 18, and William Tell, his final opera.

Now we will listen to The Barber of Seville. Like lots of classical music, Rossini's was used in older cartoons like Bugs Bunny Show.