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Rossini: A Life by Gaia Servadio (Hardcover, 2003)

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Author:Gaia Servadio. Rossini: A Life. Each month we recycle over 2.3 million books, saving over 12,500 tonnes of books a year from going straight into landfill sites. All of our paper waste is recycled and turned into corrugated cardboard.

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This work tells the story of Rossini's life, set against a panoramic view of the revolutionary upheavals taking place throughout Europe in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. It casts light on the child prodigy's relationship with his impoverished parents, to whom he remained loyal, despite a reluctance to introduce them to his long-term mistress and eventual first wife, the tempestuous soprano Isabella Colbran. Tracing his travels on brigand-infested routes to meet operatic commissions throughout Europe, the text also offers vignettes of the countless characters Rossini met in the most prestigious literary salons of Milan and Paris as well as his memorable encounters with Beethoven, Verdi and Wagner. Among other crucial personalities in the narrative are Stendhal, Balzac and Rossini's devoted second wife, the courtesan-turned-diamond-studded gambler, Olympe Pelissier, who nursed him in a sexless marriage during the long years of his decline into deteriorating health and depression. Why did the most popular icon of his time lament in silence after the triumph of Guillaume Tell?