STABAT MATER PRODUCTION

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1929, Page 10

STABAT MATER PRODUCTION

COMBINED CHOIRS’ EFFORT.' ■ The composer of the famous Stabat Mater which the Stratford combined choirs will produce in the King’s Theatre on Sunday both in the afternoon and evening was the'only child ,of a town trumpeter and inspector of slaughterhouses at Pasaro, on- the Adriatic. . Antonio Gioacchino Rossini was born in 1792 and. from the early age of seven studied music and singing at Bologna under various masters until in his 15th year, when he entered the Bologna Con-servatot-iura. He soon became known as ! an accompanist at the . theatres 'and spent some time travelling with his father, a born player. Numerous operatic works,' mostly, successful, were writ-ten-for the theatres at Venice;,Bologna, and Rome; but in 1813 Rossini created wildest excitement throughout Venice with *his Taiicredi, the sensation rapidly spreading over Italy, \ On February *5, 1816;. he brought out at .the Argentine Theatre. in Rome II Barbiere di Scviglia, which resulted the first night in a .complete fiasco, . but. next night Rossini was acclaimed a genius and received a wonderful ovation. » From 1815 to ,1823. he is said to have completed 20' operas, including'Otello, La Gazza. Landra -Mope in Egitto and Semiranii.de, In 1812 he married Isabella- Colbran, who had sung in. .his operas, and after the . honeymoon . accepted the position of director of the Theatre Italien at Paris. His; greateet work, Guillaume Tell,, was conceived and produced in 1829, and was crowned with immediate, though not lasting success. From that period to his death Rossini produced nothing except the Stabat Mater (1841). The first six .movements of the Stabat Mater were . completed three years after Guillaume Tell for private performance only, but the whole work was finished in 183.9. ,In 1836 Ros-, sini retired to Bologna, where he raised the Liceo .to a high position as a school of music. ': ' :