Gioachino Rossini Essentials

To be a master of either comic opera or bel canto writing would suffice for most composers, but this 19th-century Italian dynamo excelled in both, resulting in some of the most enduring operatic creations of all time. Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola have never been out of fashion; listening to the bouncy, boisterous stream of triplets in the former's “Largo al factotum” will suffice to explain why. And contemporary hunger for Rossini's more sparkling orchestral and vocal wit has led to revivals of his lesser-known French-period pieces, Le Comte Ory and Guillaume Tell.