Rossini and Post-Napoleonic Europe

Warren Roberts has discovered a Rossini that others have not seen, a composer who commented ironically and satirically on religion and politics in Post-Napoleonic Europe.

Warren Roberts has discovered a Rossini that others have not seen, a composer who commented ironically and satirically on religion and politics in Post-Napoleonic Europe.

This book examines Rossini within the context of his own time, one of Napoleonic domination of Italy, restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in Naples in 1815, and the 1830 Revolution in Paris. Using the techniques of the historian,and reading librettos as texts, the author analyzes the five operas treated in detail in the book (Il barbiere di SivigliaCenerentolaLa gazza ladraMatilde di Shabran, andIl viaggio a Reims) as responses, each in its own way, to the history that the composer experienced. Roberts shows that Rossini made probing commentaries on politics and religion in a time of reaction and revolution, and that the composer was well-informed on post-Napoleonic politics. Rossini's comic writing served very serious purposes, exposing the problems and complications of an age that he observed with striking clarity.

Warren Roberts is Professor Emeritusof History at the University at Albany, SUNY, and has published extensively on eighteenth-century French culture.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Setting the Stage:Opera Buffa and Comedy of Manners in an Age of Democratic Revolution
Rossini, Mozart, Paisiello, and theBarber of Seville
Jane Austen, Goya, Rossini, and the Post-Napoleonic Age:La Cenerentola
Rossini, Beethoven, and Rescue Opera:Fidelio andLa gazza ladra
Rossini, FerrettiMatilde di Shabran, and the Revolution of 1820-21
Stendhal and Rossini in Paris:Il viaggio a ReimsLe Comte Ory, and the July Revolution
Conclusion: Thinking about Rossini
Notes
Bibliography
Index