Gaetano Rossi (; 18 May 1774 – 25 January 1855) was an Italian

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...

for several of the well-known ''

bel canto , )—with several similar constructions (, , , pronounced in English as )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing, and whose definitions have often been misunderstood. ''Bel canto'' was not only seen as a vocal technique ...

''-era composers including

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote man ...

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''be ...

, and

Saverio Mercadante Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (baptised 17 September 179517 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti or Gioa ...

in Italy and

Giacomo Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart and Richard Wa ...

in one of his early Italian successes. Other composers with whom he worked included Simon Mayr, a composer and Donizetti's teacher, as well as the prolific

Giovanni Pacini Giovanni Pacini (11 February 17966 December 1867) was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas. The fam ...

Biography

Born in Verona, Rossi was writing religious verse by the time that he was 13 years old. He wrote libretti for about 60 years, beginning in 1797 with mostly

farsa Farsa (Italian language, Italian, literally: ''farce'', plural: ''farse'') is a genre of opera, associated with Venice in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is also sometimes called ''farsetta''. Farse were normally one-act operas, some ...

s. Rossi wrote the texts for some significant operas by the well-known composers of the era. These included ''

Tancredi ''Tancredi'' is a ''melodramma eroico'' (''opera seria'' or heroic opera) in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi (who was also to write ''Semiramide'' ten years later), based on Voltaire's play ''Tancrède (traged ...

'' and ''

Semiramide ''Semiramide'' () is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy ''Sémiramis (tragedy), Semiramis'', which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Assyria. The opera was first ...

'' for Rossini and '' Il crociato in Egitto'' for Meyerbeer, as well as later operas for Donizetti such as ''

Maria Padilla ''Maria Padilla'' is a '' melodramma'', or opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Gaetano Rossi and the composer wrote the Italian libretto after François Ancelot's play. It premiered on 26 December 1841 at La Scala, Milan. The plot is lo ...

'' (as co-author) and ''

Linda di Chamounix ''Linda di Chamounix'' is an operatic '' melodramma semiserio'' in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered in Vienna, at the Kärntnertortheater, on 19 May 1842. Performance history ' ...

''. In addition to his writing, he also worked for a time as the stage director for the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona.

Musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

John Black regards him as producing crude versification, "but nevertheless he had an eye for dramatic situations and his texts, if long-winded, were effective." His success was twofold: in finding mostly foreign sources to utilize as well as introducing "strongly romantic plots to the Italian stage".Black 1998, p. 52 sq.

Works

Legend: Autumn = Autumn season (Autunno); Carnival = Carnival season (i. e. from 26 December to Easter); Spring = Spring season (Primavera)

References

Notes Sources *Black, John (1998), "Gaetano Rossi", in

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition ...

(Ed.), ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...

'', Vol. Four, pp. 52–53. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rossi, Gaetano 1774 births 1855 deaths Writers from Verona Italian opera librettists 19th-century Italian writers 18th-century Italian writers 18th-century Italian male writers 19th-century Italian male writers Republic of Venice writers