Editing Gioachino Rossini (section)

==Life and career==
===Early life===
{{multiple image|title=Rossini's parents|caption_align=center| align = right | direction = horizontal | header_align = center | footer_align = left | image1 = Giuseppe Rossini (father of Gioachino Rossini).jpg| width1 = 207| alt1=painting of elderly man, smiling at the artists|caption1 = Giuseppe Rossini<br />(1758–1839) | image2 = Anna Rossini (mother of Gioachino Rossini).jpg|alt2=painting of a middle-aged woman, looking with serious expression in the direction of the painter| width2 =200 | caption2 = Anna Rossini<br />(1771–1827)}}

Rossini was born on 29 February in 1792<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gioachino-Rossini |title=Gioachino Rossini |encyclopedia=Britannica |access-date=27 February 2024}}</ref> in [[Pesaro]], a town on the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]] coast of Italy that was then part of the [[Papal States]].{{sfn|Kendall|1992|p= 9}} He was the only child of Giuseppe Rossini, a trumpeter and horn player, and his wife Anna, ''née'' Guidarini, a seamstress by trade, daughter of a baker.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=4}} Giuseppe Rossini was charming but impetuous and feckless; the burden of supporting the family and raising the child fell mainly on Anna, with some help from her mother and mother-in-law.{{sfn|Kendall|1992|pp= 10–11}}{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=9}} [[Stendhal]], who published a colourful biography of Rossini in 1824,{{sfn|Prunières|1921|p=143}} wrote:

{{Blockquote|Rossini's portion from his father, was the true native heirship of an Italian: a little music, a little religion, and a volume of [[Ariosto]]. The rest of his education was consigned to the legitimate school of southern youth, the society of his mother, the young singing girls of the company, those prima donnas in embryo, and the gossips of every village through which they passed. This was aided and refined by the musical barber and news-loving coffee-house keeper of the Papal village.{{sfn|Stendhal|1824|p=4}}{{refn|Stendhal's ''Memoirs of Rossini'', quoted here, is not the same as his ''Life of Rossini'', and is believed to be compiled from the author's first draft. The musicologist [[Henry Prunières]] commented in the 20th century, "From the historical point of view this [i.e. the ''Memoirs''] is the first and, without doubt, the best book written on Rossini in the first half of the nineteenth century. For Stendhalians, however, it is far from possessing the same interest as ''The Life of Rossini'', which is an improvisation of genius, exuberant with life, bubbling over with ideas."{{sfn|Prunières|1921|p=143}}|group= n}}|}}
Giuseppe was imprisoned at least twice: first in 1790 for insubordination to local authorities in a dispute about his employment as town trumpeter; and in 1799 and 1800 for republican activism and support of the troops of [[Napoleon]] against the Pope's Austrian backers.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=5}} In 1798, when Rossini was aged six, his mother began a career as a professional singer in comic opera, and for a little over a decade was a considerable success in cities including [[Trieste]] and [[Bologna]], before her untrained voice began to fail.{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=11}}

In 1802 the family moved to [[Lugo, Emilia-Romagna|Lugo]], near [[Ravenna]], where Rossini received a good basic education in Italian, Latin and arithmetic as well as music.{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=11}} He studied the horn with his father and other music with a priest, Giuseppe Malerbe, whose extensive library contained works by [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]] and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], both little known in Italy at the time, but inspirational to the young Rossini. He was a quick learner, and by the age of twelve, he had composed a set of [[Six string sonatas (Rossini)|six sonatas]] for four stringed instruments, which were performed under the aegis of a rich patron in 1804.{{refn|The quartets were written for the unusual combination of two violins, one cello and one double bass. They achieved some popularity in 1825 and 1826 when five of the six were published in an arrangement for the traditional [[string quartet]] combination of two violins, one viola and one cello. The remaining sonata was not published until 1954.{{sfn|Kendall|1992|p=13}}|group= n}} Two years later he was admitted to the recently opened [[Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini|Liceo Musicale, Bologna]], initially studying singing, cello and piano, and joining the composition class soon afterwards.{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;1. Early years}} He wrote some substantial works while a student, including a mass and a cantata, and after two years he was invited to continue his studies. He declined the offer: the strict academic regime of the Liceo had given him a solid compositional technique, but as his biographer Richard Osborne puts it, "his instinct to continue his education in the real world finally asserted itself".{{sfn|Osborne|2004|pp=11–12}}

While still at the Liceo, Rossini had performed in public as a singer and worked in theatres as a [[répétiteur]] and keyboard soloist.{{sfn|Kendall|1992|p=16}} In 1810 at the request of the popular tenor [[Domenico Mombelli]] he wrote his first operatic score, a two-act operatic ''[[Dramma per musica|dramma serio]]'', ''[[Demetrio e Polibio]]'', to a libretto by Mombelli's wife. It was publicly staged in 1812, after the composer's first successes.{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;1. Early years}} Rossini and his parents concluded that his future lay in composing operas. The main operatic centre in northeastern Italy was [[Venice]]; under the tutelage of the composer [[Giovanni Morandi (composer)|Giovanni Morandi]], a family friend, Rossini moved there in late 1810, when he was eighteen.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|pp=25–25}}

===First operas: 1810–1815===
Rossini's first opera to be staged was ''[[La cambiale di matrimonio]]'',{{refn|"The Marriage Contract"|group= n}} a one-act comedy, given at the small [[Teatro San Moisè]] in November 1810. The piece was a great success, and Rossini received what then seemed to him a considerable sum: "forty ''[[Italian scudo|scudi]]'' – an amount I had never seen brought together".{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=27}} He later described the San Moisè as an ideal theatre for a young composer learning his craft – "everything tended to facilitate the début of a novice composer":{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;2. 1810–1813}} it had no chorus, and a small company of principals; its main repertoire consisted of one-act comic operas (''[[farsa|farse]]''), staged with modest scenery and minimal rehearsal.{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=13}} Rossini followed the success of his first piece with three more ''farse'' for the house: ''[[L'inganno felice]]'' (1812),{{refn|"The Lucky Deception"|group= n}} ''[[La scala di seta]]'' (1812),{{refn|"The Silken Ladder"|group= n}} and ''[[Il signor Bruschino]]'' (1813).{{sfn|Osborne|1993|p=274}}

Rossini maintained his links with Bologna, where in 1811 he had a success directing Haydn's ''[[The Seasons (Haydn)|The Seasons]]'',{{sfn|Ricciardi|2003|p=56}} and a failure with his first full-length opera, ''[[L'equivoco stravagante]]''.{{refn|"The Extravagant Misunderstanding"|group= n}}{{sfn|Gallo|2012|p=xviii}}{{sfn|Osborne|2007|pp=17–18}} He also worked for opera houses in [[Ferrara]] and Rome.{{sfn|Gallo|2012|p=xix}} In mid-1812 he received a commission from [[La Scala]], Milan, where his two-act comedy ''[[La pietra del paragone]]''{{refn|"The Touchstone"|group= n}} ran for fifty-three performances, a considerable run for the time, which brought him not only financial benefits, but exemption from military service and the title of ''maestro di cartello'' – a composer whose name on advertising posters guaranteed a full house.{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=13}} The following year his first ''[[opera seria]]'', ''[[Tancredi]]'', did well at [[La Fenice]] in Venice, and even better at Ferrara, with a rewritten, tragic ending.{{sfn|Gallo|2012|p=xix}} The success of ''Tancredi'' made Rossini's name known internationally; productions of the opera followed in London (1820) and New York (1825).{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=328}} Within weeks of ''Tancredi'', Rossini had another box-office success with his comedy ''[[L'italiana in Algeri]]'',{{refn|"The Italian Girl in Algiers"|group= n}} composed in great haste and premiered in May 1813.{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=331}}

1814 was a less remarkable year for the rising composer, neither ''[[Il turco in Italia]]''{{refn|"The Turk in Italy"|group= n}} or ''[[Sigismondo]]'' pleasing the Milanese or Venetian public, respectively.{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=332}}{{sfn|Osborne|1994|p=44}} 1815 marked an important stage in Rossini's career. In May he moved to [[Naples]], to take up the post of director of music for the royal theatres. These included the [[Teatro di San Carlo]],{{sfn|Gallo|2012|p=xix}} the city's leading opera house; its manager [[Domenico Barbaia]] was to be an important influence on the composer's career there.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=24}}

===Naples and ''Il barbiere'': 1815–1820===
[[File:Alexandre Fragonard - Scène de L'orage (Barbier de Séville).jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|The storm scene from ''[[The Barber of Seville|Il barbiere]]'' in an 1830 lithograph by [[Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard|Alexandre Fragonard]]]]
The musical establishment of Naples was not immediately welcoming to Rossini, who was seen as an intruder into its cherished operatic traditions. The city had once been the operatic capital of Europe;{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=46}} the memory of [[Domenico Cimarosa|Cimarosa]] was revered and [[Giovanni Paisiello|Paisiello]] was still living, but there were no local composers of any stature to follow them, and Rossini quickly won the public and critics round.{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;4. Naples and the opera seria, 1815–23}} Rossini's first work for the San Carlo, ''[[Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra]]''{{refn|"Elizabeth, Queen of England"|group=n}} was a [[dramma per musica]] in two acts, in which he reused substantial sections of his earlier works, unfamiliar to the local public. The Rossini scholars [[Philip Gossett]] and Patricia Brauner write, "It is as if Rossini wished to present himself to the Neapolitan public by offering a selection of the best music from operas unlikely to be revived in Naples."{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=334}} The new opera was received with tremendous enthusiasm, as was the Neapolitan premiere of ''L'italiana in Algeri'', and Rossini's position in Naples was assured.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=48}}

For the first time, Rossini was able to write regularly for a resident company of first-rate singers and a fine orchestra, with adequate rehearsals, and schedules that made it unnecessary to compose in a rush to meet deadlines.{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;4. Naples and the opera seria, 1815–23}} Between 1815 and 1822 he composed eighteen more operas: nine for Naples and nine for opera houses in other cities. In 1816, for the [[Teatro Argentina]] in Rome, he composed the opera that was to become his best-known: ''[[The Barber of Seville|Il barbiere di Siviglia]]'' (''The Barber of Seville''). There was already [[The Barber of Seville (Paisiello)|a popular opera of that title by Paisiello]], and Rossini's version was originally given the same title as its hero, ''Almaviva''.{{refn|In full, ''Almaviva, ossia L'inutile precauzione'' – Almaviva, or the Useless Precaution.{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=334}}|group= n}} Despite an unsuccessful opening night, with mishaps on stage and many pro-Paisiello and anti-Rossini audience members, the opera quickly became a success, and by the time of its first revival, in Bologna a few months later, it was billed by its present Italian title and it rapidly eclipsed Paisiello's setting.{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=334}}{{refn|Paisiello's version had vanished from the operatic repertory by the 1820s, along with his other once-popular operas, such as ''[[Nina (opera)|Nina]]''.{{sfn|Robinson|2002}}|group= n}}
[[File:Isabella Colbran in Saffo 1817.jpg|thumb|alt=painting of young woman in long white frock with purple shawl; she holds a lyre|upright|[[Isabella Colbran]], ''[[prima donna]]'' of the [[Teatro San Carlo]], who married Rossini in 1822]]
Rossini's operas for the Teatro San Carlo were substantial, mainly serious pieces. His ''[[Otello (Rossini)|Otello]]'' (1816) provoked [[Lord Byron]] to write, "They have been crucifying ''[[Othello]]'' into an opera: music good, but lugubrious – but as for the words!"{{sfn|Osborne|1994|p=65}} Nonetheless, the piece proved generally popular and held the stage in frequent revivals until it was overshadowed by [[Otello|Verdi's version]], seven decades later.{{sfn|Kendall|1992|pp= 74 and 76–77}} Among his other works for the house were ''[[Mosè in Egitto]]'', based on the biblical story of [[Moses]] and the [[the Exodus|Exodus]] from Egypt (1818), and ''[[La donna del lago]]'', from [[Walter Scott|Sir Walter Scott]]'s poem ''[[The Lady of the Lake (poem)|The Lady of the Lake]]'' (1819). For La Scala he wrote the [[opera semiseria]] ''[[La gazza ladra]]'' (1817),{{refn|"The Thieving Magpie"|group= n}} and for Rome his version of the [[Cinderella]] story, ''[[La Cenerentola]]'' (1817).{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;3. From 'Tancredi' to 'La gazza ladra'}} In 1817 came the first performance of one of his operas (''L'Italiana'') at the [[Comédie-Italienne|Theâtre-Italien]] in Paris; its success led to others of his operas being staged there, and eventually to his contract in Paris from 1824 to 1830.{{sfn|Charlton & Trevitt|1980|p= 214}}

Rossini kept his personal life as private as possible, but he was known for his susceptibility to singers in the companies he worked with. Among his lovers in his early years were [[Ester Mombelli]] (Domenico's daughter) and [[Marietta Marcolini|Maria Marcolini]] of the Bologna company.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|pp=27–28}} By far the most important of these relationships – both personal and professional – was with [[Isabella Colbran]], prima donna of the Teatro San Carlo (and former mistress of Barbaia). Rossini had heard her sing in Bologna in 1807, and when he moved to Naples he wrote a succession of important roles for her in ''[[opere serie]]''.{{sfn|Osborne|1993|p=300}}{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=25}}

===Vienna and London: 1820–1824===
By the early 1820s, Rossini was beginning to tire of Naples. The failure of his operatic tragedy ''[[Ermione]]'' the previous year convinced him that he and the Neapolitan audiences had had enough of each other.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=66}} An insurrection in Naples against the monarchy, though [[Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies#1820 revolution|quickly crushed]], unsettled Rossini;{{sfn|Kendall|1992|p=99}} when Barbaia signed a contract to take the company to Vienna, Rossini was glad to join them, but did not reveal to Barbaia that he had no intention of returning to Naples afterwards.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=70}} He travelled with Colbran, in March 1822, breaking their journey at Bologna, where they were married in the presence of his parents in a small church in [[Castenaso]] a few miles from the city.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=92}} The bride was thirty-seven, the groom thirty.{{refn|[[Stendhal]], whose dislike of Colbran is undisguised in his 1824 biography of Rossini, put the bride's age at 40 to 50, and suggested that Rossini married her for her (considerable) money.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=106}}|group= n}}

In Vienna, Rossini received a hero's welcome; his biographers describe it as "unprecedentedly feverish enthusiasm",{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=95}} "Rossini fever",{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=75}} and "near hysteria".{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=17}} The authoritarian chancellor of the [[Austrian Empire]], [[Klemens von Metternich|Metternich]], liked Rossini's music, and thought it free of all potential revolutionary or republican associations. He was therefore happy to permit the San Carlo company to perform the composer's operas.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|pp=97–98}} In a three-month season they played six of them, to audiences so enthusiastic that [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s assistant, [[Anton Schindler]], described it as "an idolatrous orgy".{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=75}}

[[File:Charles Motte - Rossini et Georges IV - la soirée de Brighton.jpg|thumb|left|alt=drawing of plump man in court dress greeting a slimmer, balding one, also in formal court dress| [[George IV of the United Kingdom|George IV]] (left) greeting Rossini at the [[Brighton Pavilion]], 1823]]While in Vienna Rossini heard Beethoven's ''[[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|Eroica]]'' symphony, and was so moved that he determined to meet the reclusive composer. He finally managed to do so, and later described the encounter to many people, including [[Eduard Hanslick]] and [[Richard Wagner]]. He recalled that although conversation was hampered by Beethoven's deafness and Rossini's ignorance of German, Beethoven made it plain that he thought Rossini's talents were not for serious opera,{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=100}} and that "above all" he should "do more ''Barbiere''" ''(Barbers)''.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=76}}{{refn|"Vor allem machen Sie noch viele Barbiere".{{sfn|Caeyers|2012|p=667}}|group= n}}

After the Vienna season Rossini returned to Castenaso to work with his librettist, [[Gaetano Rossi]], on ''[[Semiramide]]'', commissioned by La Fenice. It was premiered in February 1823, his last work for the Italian theatre. Colbran starred, but it was clear to everyone that her voice was in serious decline, and ''Semiramide'' ended her career in Italy.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=109}} The work survived that one major disadvantage, and entered the international operatic repertory, remaining popular throughout the 19th century;{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=343}} in Richard Osborne's words, it brought "[Rossini's] Italian career to a spectacular close."{{sfn|Osborne|2002d}}

In November 1823 Rossini and Colbran set off for London, where a lucrative contract had been offered. They stopped for four weeks ''en route'' in Paris. Although he was not as feverishly acclaimed by the Parisians as he had been in Vienna, he nevertheless had an exceptionally welcoming reception from the musical establishment and the public. When he attended a performance of ''Il barbiere'' at the Théâtre-Italien he was applauded, dragged onto the stage, and serenaded by the musicians. A banquet was given for him and his wife, attended by leading French composers and artists, and he found the cultural climate of Paris congenial.{{sfn|Prod'homme|1931|p=118}}

At the end of the year Rossini arrived in London, where he was received and made much of by the king, [[George IV of the United Kingdom|George IV]], although the composer was by now unimpressed by royalty and aristocracy.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=119}} Rossini and Colbran had signed contracts for an opera season at the [[Her Majesty's Theatre#Second theatre: 1791–1867|King's Theatre]] in the [[Haymarket, London|Haymarket]]. Her vocal shortcomings were a serious liability, and she reluctantly retired from performing. Public opinion was not improved by Rossini's failure to provide a new opera, as promised.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=121}} The impresario Vincenzo Benelli defaulted on his contract with the composer, but this was not known to the London press and public, who blamed Rossini.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=121}}{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=90}}

In a 2003 biography of the composer, [[Gaia Servadio]] comments that Rossini and England were not made for each other. He was prostrated by the [[English Channel|Channel]] crossing and was unlikely to be enthused by the English weather or English cooking.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=123}} Although his stay in London was financially rewarding – the British press reported disapprovingly that he had earned over £30,000{{refn|A sum equal to £{{Inflation|UK|30000|1824|fmt=c}} today|group=n}} – he was happy to sign a contract at the French embassy in London to return to Paris, where he had felt much more at home.{{sfn|Blanning|2008|p=46}}{{sfn|Kendall|1992|pp=125–126}}

===Paris and final operas: 1824–1829===
[[File:Gioachino Rossini, 1828, by Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot.jpg|thumb|Rossini, painted in Paris in 1828 by [[Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot]]]]
Rossini's new, and highly remunerative, contract with the French government was negotiated under [[Louis XVIII]], who died in September 1824, soon after Rossini's arrival in Paris. It had been agreed that the composer would produce one [[grand opera]] for the Académie Royale de Musique and either an ''opera buffa'' or an ''opera semiseria'' for the Théâtre-Italien.{{sfn|Kendall|1992|p=125}} He was also to help run the latter theatre and revise one of his earlier works for revival there.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|pp=128–129}} The death of the king and the accession of [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] changed Rossini's plans, and his first new work for Paris was ''[[Il viaggio a Reims]]'',{{refn|"The Journey to Rheims"|group=n}} an operatic entertainment given in June 1825 to celebrate Charles's coronation. It was Rossini's last opera with an Italian libretto.{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=344}} He permitted only four performances of the piece,{{sfn|Kendall|1992|p=128}}{{refn|The score was reconstructed from rediscovered manuscripts in the 1970s, and has since been staged and recorded.{{sfn|Everist|2005|pp=342–343}}|group= n}} intending to reuse the best of the music in a less ephemeral opera.{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=18}} About half the score of ''[[Le comte Ory]]'' (1828) is from the earlier work.{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=347}}

[[File:Le comte Ory - Dubois & chez Martinet - Final scene.jpg|alt=coloured drawing of leading operatic players in costume|thumb|Isolier, Ory, Adèle and Ragonde, in ''[[Le comte Ory]]'']]
Colbran's enforced retirement put a strain on the Rossinis' marriage, leaving her unoccupied while he continued to be the centre of musical attention and constantly in demand.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=109}} She consoled herself with what Servadio describes as "a new pleasure in shopping";{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=125}} for Rossini, Paris offered continual gourmet delights, as his increasingly rotund shape began to reflect.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=125}}{{refn|Several [[haute cuisine]] dishes were named after Rossini; some of them later featured on menus at his house after he returned to live in Paris in the 1850s. They included ''Crema alla Rossini'', ''[[Frittata]] alla Rossini'', ''[[Tournedos Rossini]]'', and were rich dishes that generally involved the use of [[truffles]] and [[foie gras]].{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=212}}|group=n}}

The first of the four operas Rossini wrote to French librettos were ''[[Le siège de Corinthe]]''{{refn|"The Siege of Corinth"|group=n}} (1826) and ''[[Mosè in Egitto|Moïse et Pharaon]]''{{refn|"Moses and Pharaoh"|group=n}} (1827). Both were substantial reworkings of pieces written for Naples: ''[[Maometto II]]'' and ''Mosè in Egitto''. Rossini took great care before beginning work on the first, learning to speak French and familiarising himself with traditional French operatic ways of declaiming the language. As well as dropping some of the original music that was in an ornate style unfashionable in Paris, Rossini accommodated local preferences by adding dances, hymn-like numbers and a greater role for the chorus.{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=346}}

Rossini's mother, Anna, died in 1827; he had been devoted to her, and he felt her loss deeply. She and Colbran had never got on well, and Servadio suggests that after Anna died Rossini came to resent the surviving woman in his life.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=133}}

In 1828 Rossini wrote ''Le comte Ory'', his only French-language comic opera. His determination to reuse music from ''Il viaggio a Reims'' caused problems for his librettists, who had to adapt their original plot and write French words to fit existing Italian numbers, but the opera was a success, and was seen in London within six months of the Paris premiere, and in New York in 1831.{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=347}} The following year Rossini wrote his long-awaited French grand opera, ''[[William Tell (opera)|Guillaume Tell]]'', based on [[Friedrich Schiller]]'s [[William Tell (play)|1804 play]] which drew on the [[William Tell]] legend.{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|p=348}}

===Early retirement: 1830–1855===
''Guillaume Tell'' was well received. The orchestra and singers gathered outside Rossini's house after the premiere and performed the rousing finale to the second act in his honour. The newspaper ''[[Le Globe]]'' commented that a new era of music had begun.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=137}} [[Gaetano Donizetti]] remarked that the first and last acts of the opera were written by Rossini, but the middle act was written by God.{{sfn|Kendall|1992|p=145}} The work was an undoubted success, without being a smash hit; the public took some time in getting to grips with it, and some singers found it too demanding.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=111}} It nonetheless was produced abroad within months of the premiere,{{refn|The London production was "selected and adapted to the English stage" by [[Henry Bishop (composer)|Henry Bishop]] and [[James Planché|J. R. Planché]], "with taste and ability" according to ''[[The Times]]'', and was given at [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]] in May 1830 under the title ''Hofer, the Tell of the Tyrol''.{{sfn|The Times|1830|p=3}}|group= n}} and there was no suspicion that it would be the composer's last opera.{{sfn|Osborne|1993|pp=79–80}}

[[File:OlympePélissierStudy.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=painting of head and torso of young white woman, not wearing very much clothing|[[Olympe Pélissier]] in 1830]] [[File:Rossini 7.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=photograph of middle-aged man, looking ill|Rossini, {{circa|1850}}]]
Jointly with ''Semiramide'', ''Guillaume Tell'' is Rossini's longest opera, at three hours and forty-five minutes,{{sfn|Gossett & Brauner|1997|pp=343 and 348}} and the effort of composing it left him exhausted. Although within a year he was planning an operatic treatment of the [[Faust]] story,{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=137}} events and ill health overtook him. After the opening of ''Guillaume Tell'' the Rossinis had left Paris and were staying in Castenaso. Within a year events in Paris had Rossini hurrying back. Charles X was overthrown in [[July Revolution|a revolution in July]] 1830, and the new administration, headed by [[Louis Philippe I]], announced radical cutbacks in government spending. Among the cuts was Rossini's lifetime annuity, won after hard negotiation with the previous regime.{{sfn|Osborne|1993|p=83}} Attempting to restore the annuity was one of Rossini's reasons for returning. The other was to be with his new mistress, [[Olympe Pélissier]]. He left Colbran in Castenaso; she never returned to Paris and they never lived together again.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|pp=140–141}}

The reasons for Rossini's withdrawal from opera have been continually discussed during and since his lifetime.{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;6. Retirement}}{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=19}} Some have supposed that aged thirty-seven and in variable health, having negotiated a sizeable annuity from the French government, and having written thirty-nine operas, he simply planned to retire and kept to that plan. In a 1934 study of the composer, the critic [[Francis Toye]] coined the phrase "The Great Renunciation", and called Rossini's retirement a "phenomenon unique in the history of music and difficult to parallel in the whole history of art":
{{blockquote|Is there any other artist who thus deliberately, in the very prime of life, renounced that form of artistic production which had made him famous throughout the civilized world?{{sfn|Toye|1947|p=139}}|}}
The poet [[Heinrich Heine|Heine]] compared Rossini's retirement with [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s withdrawal from writing: two geniuses recognising when they had accomplished the unsurpassable and not seeking to follow it.{{refn|Heine added that the title "The Swan of Pesaro", sometimes applied to Rossini, was clearly wrong: "Swans sing at the end of their lives, but Rossini has become silent in the middle of his."{{sfn|Heine|2008 |p=18 }}|group=n}} Others, then and later, suggested that Rossini had retired because of pique at the successes of [[Giacomo Meyerbeer]] and [[Fromental Halévy]] in the genre of grand opéra.{{refn|These suggestions often took on a tinge of [[Antisemitism|Jew-hatred]] – for example the assertion that Rossini had retired "until the Jews finished their Sabbath" (a quip sometimes, without foundation, attributed to Rossini himself),{{sfn|Gerhard|1998|p=116}} or [[Richard Wagner]]'s crack (in his 1851 ''[[Opera and Drama]]''), referring to the friendships of the [[Rothschild family]] with both Rossini and Meyerbeer (who stemmed from a banking family): "[Rossini] never could have dreamt that it would someday occur to the Bankers, for whom he had always made their music, to make it for themselves."{{sfn|Wagner|1995|p=47}}{{sfn|Conway|2012|p=249}} Such allegations were wide of the mark; Rossini was on friendly terms with Meyerbeer, visiting him regularly, and wrote a memorial elegy for male voice choir on Meyerbeer's death in 1864, "Pleure, muse sublime!" ("Weep, Sublime Muse!"){{sfn|Osborne|1993|p=118}}|group=n}} Modern Rossini scholarship has generally discounted such theories, maintaining that Rossini had no intention of renouncing operatic composition, and that circumstances rather than personal choice made ''Guillaume Tell'' his last opera.{{sfn|Osborne|1993|p=20}}{{sfn|Johnson|1993|p=74}} Gossett and Richard Osborne suggest that illness may have been a major factor in Rossini's retirement. From about this time, Rossini had intermittent bad health, both physical and mental. He had contracted [[gonorrhoea]] in earlier years, which later led to painful side-effects, from [[urethritis]] to [[arthritis]];{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=157}} he suffered from bouts of debilitating depression, which commentators have linked to several possible causes: [[cyclothymia]],{{sfn|Gallo|2012|p=68}} or [[bipolar disorder]],{{sfn|Janka|2004}} or reaction to his mother's death.{{refn|Daniel W. Schwartz hypothesises that Rossini's failure to write any more operas after 1829 was due to "narcissistic withdrawal and depression" following his mother's death two years earlier.{{sfn|Schwartz|1990|p=435}} Richard Osborne rejects this as "idle speculation", "less well researched" than other psychological theories.{{sfn|Osborne|1993|pp=78–80}}|group= n}}

For the next twenty-five years following ''Guillaume Tell'' Rossini composed little, although Gossett comments that his comparatively few compositions from the 1830s and 1840s show no falling off in musical inspiration.{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;6. Retirement}} They include the ''Soirées musicales'' (1830–1835: a set of twelve songs for solo or duet voices and piano) and his [[Stabat Mater (Rossini)|Stabat Mater]] (begun in 1831 and completed in 1841).{{refn|The first version of the Stabat Mater consisted of six sections by Rossini and six by his friend [[Giovanni Tadolini]]. Under pressure from his publisher in Paris, Rossini later replaced Tadolini's contributions and the all-Rossini version was published in 1841.{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;6. Retirement}}|group= n}} After winning his fight with the government over his annuity in 1835 Rossini left Paris and settled in Bologna. His return to Paris in 1843 for medical treatment by [[Jean Civiale]] sparked hopes that he might produce a new grand opera – it was rumoured that [[Eugène Scribe]] was preparing a libretto for him about [[Joan of Arc]]. The Opéra was moved to present a French version of ''Otello'' in 1844 which also included material from some of the composer's earlier operas. It is unclear to what extent – if at all – Rossini was involved with this production, which was in the event poorly received.{{sfn|Everist|2009|pp=644–646, 650}} More controversial was the ''[[pasticcio]]'' opera of ''[[Robert Bruce (opera)|Robert Bruce]]'' (1846), in which Rossini, by then returned to Bologna, closely cooperated by selecting music from his past operas which had not yet been performed in Paris, notably ''La donna del lago''. The Opéra sought to present ''Robert'' as a new Rossini opera. But although ''Othello'' could at least claim to be genuine, canonic Rossini, the historian [[Mark Everist]] notes that detractors argued that ''Robert'' was simply "fake goods, and from a bygone era at that"; he cites [[Théophile Gautier]] regretting that "the lack of unity could have been masked by a superior performance; unfortunately the tradition of Rossini's music was lost at the Opéra a long time ago."{{sfn|Everist|2009|pp=646–648, 650–651}}

The period after 1835 saw Rossini's formal separation from his wife, who remained at Castenaso (1837), and the death of his father at the age of eighty (1839).{{sfn|Osborne|1993|pp=278–279}} In 1845 Colbran became seriously ill, and in September Rossini travelled to visit her; a month later she died.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=165}} The following year Rossini and Pélissier were married in Bologna.{{sfn|Osborne|1993|pp=278–279}} The events of the [[Revolutions of 1848|Year of Revolution]] in 1848 led Rossini to move away from the Bologna area, where he felt threatened by insurrection, and to make [[Florence]] his base, which it remained until 1855.{{sfn|Osborne|1993|pp=218–282}}

By the early 1850s Rossini's mental and physical health had deteriorated to the point where his wife and friends feared for his sanity or his life. By the middle of the decade, it was clear that he needed to return to Paris for the most advanced medical care then available. In April 1855 the Rossinis set off for their final journey from Italy to France.{{sfn|Till|1983|pp=113–114}} Rossini returned to Paris aged sixty-three and made it his home for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=145}}

===Sins of old age: 1855–1868===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 | salign=right| quote = I offer these modest songs to my dear wife Olympe as a simple testimony of gratitude for the affectionate, intelligent care which she lavished on me during my overlong and terrible illness.| source = Dedication of ''Musique anodine'', 1857{{sfn|Stokes|2008}}| align=left| width=25%}}
Gossett observes that although an account of Rossini's life between 1830 and 1855 makes depressing reading, it is "no exaggeration to say that, in Paris, Rossini returned to life". He recovered his health and ''[[joie de vivre]]''. Once settled in Paris he maintained two homes: a flat in the [[rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin]], a smart central area, and a neo-classical villa built for him in [[Passy]], a [[Communes of France|commune]] now absorbed into the city, but then semi-rural.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|pp=146 and 153}} He and his wife established a [[Salon (gathering)|salon]] that became internationally famous.{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;6. Retirement}}{{sfn|Osborne|2007|p=153}} The first of their Saturday evening gatherings – the ''samedi soirs'' – was held in December 1858, and the last, two months before he died in 1868.{{sfn|Osborne|2007|pp=153 and 354}}

[[File:Composer Rossini G 1865 by Carjat - Restoration.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Photo of fat old man looking genial and happy|Rossini in 1865, by [[Étienne Carjat]]]]
[[File:The grave of Rossini, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.jpg|thumb|upright|Rossini's original grave monument, [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]], Paris|alt=funerary monument]]
Rossini began composing again. His music from his final decade was not generally intended for public performance, and he did not usually put dates of composition on the manuscripts. Consequently, musicologists have found it difficult to give definite dates for his late works, but the first, or among the first, was the song cycle ''Musique anodine'', dedicated to his wife and presented to her in April 1857.{{sfn|Marvin|1999|p=1006}} For their weekly salons he produced more than 150 pieces, including songs, solo piano pieces, and chamber works for many different combinations of instruments. He referred to them as his ''[[Péchés de vieillesse]]'' – "sins of old age".{{sfn|Gossett|2001|loc=§&nbsp;6. Retirement}} The salons were held both at Beau Séjour – the Passy villa – and, in the winter, at the Paris flat. Such gatherings were a regular feature of Parisian life – the writer James Penrose has observed that the well-connected could easily attend different salons almost every night of the week – but the Rossinis' ''samedi soirs'' quickly became the most sought after: "an invitation was the city's highest social prize."{{sfn|Penrose|2017}} The music, carefully chosen by Rossini, was not only his own but included works by [[Giovanni Battista Pergolesi|Pergolesi]], Haydn and Mozart and modern pieces by some of his guests. Among the composers who attended the salons, and sometimes performed, were [[Daniel Auber|Auber]], [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]], [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]], [[Anton Rubinstein|Rubinstein]], Meyerbeer, and [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]. Rossini liked to call himself a fourth-class pianist, but the many famous pianists who attended the ''samedi soirs'' were dazzled by his playing.{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=339}} Violinists such as [[Pablo Sarasate]] and [[Joseph Joachim]] and the leading singers of the day were regular guests.{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=153}} In 1860, Wagner visited Rossini via an introduction from Rossini's friend [[Edmond Michotte collection#Biography|Edmond Michotte]] who some forty-five years later wrote his account of the genial conversation between the two composers.{{sfn|Michotte|1968|pp=27–85}}{{refn|Michotte was later to bequeath an [[Edmond Michotte collection|extensive collection of scores, documents and other Rossiniana]] to the Library of the [[Royal Conservatory of Brussels]].{{sfn|RCB}}|group=n}}

One of Rossini's few late works intended to be given in public was his ''[[Petite messe solennelle]]'', first performed in 1864.{{sfn|Osborne|2004|p=159}} In the same year Rossini was made a grand officer of the [[Legion of Honour]] by Napoleon III.{{sfn|Gallo|2012|p=xxiv}}

After a short illness, and an unsuccessful operation to treat [[colorectal cancer]], Rossini died at Passy on 13 November 1868 at the age of seventy-six.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=214}} He left Olympe a life interest in his estate, which after her death, ten years later, passed to the Commune of Pesaro for the establishment of a Liceo Musicale, and funded a home for retired opera singers in Paris.{{sfn|Osborne|1993|pp=282–283 }} After a funeral service attended by more than four thousand people at the church of [[Sainte-Trinité, Paris|Sainte-Trinité]], Paris, Rossini's body was interred at the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]].{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=217}} In 1887 his remains were moved to the basilica of [[Santa Croce, Florence|Santa Croce]], Florence.{{sfn|Servadio|2003|p=222}}