successfully discarded mannerisms and achieved genuine dramatic success without losing the brightness and ease of his native style. Entering into a new contract to write only for Paris and to supply a new work every other year for ten years, he retired to Bologna, filled with plans for inaugurating an epoch in French musical drama.
The Revolution of 1830 changed everything. His contract was repudiated by the new government (though later enforced by a lawsuit), and the interest in dramatic music fell ludicrously. Rossini returned to Paris, but wrote nothing except the flamboyant Stabat Mater (1832). In 1836 he heard Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, resolved to write no more operas, and settled again at Bologna. In 1843 he had a severe illness, relieved by an operation. In 1847, forced out of Bologna by political causes, he was married a second time (to an adventuress) and removed to Florence, lapsing into much sensuality. In 1855 he came again to Paris, established himself at Passy as a sort of musical divinity, indulged in some new works and revamped some old ones, cultivated the piano with much whimsicality, and in 1868 died, receiving a prodigious public funeral. His large property, after providing for a prize at the Institut for dramatic composition, was mostly given to found a conservatory at his birthplace Pesaro.
In all, his dramatic works numbered about 40, not counting revisions, and his cantatas about 10. His chief sacred works were the Stabat Mater (1832-41) and the Messe solennelle (1864), with a few other short pieces. He also wrote some miscellaneous music for voice and for piano.
Donizetti and Bellini differed from Rossini, as well as from
each other, in the quality of their genius, although with him
they constituted a group that long held sway in many quarters.
Neither of them had Rossini's abounding vigor and variety or
his instrumental originality, and both tended to exalt forms
of melody that were more sentimental than pyrotechnic. But
Donizetti had some gift for genuine dramatic intensity, though
he did not always exert it, and Bellini, though wanting in vivacity
and wit, had decided melodic grace of an emotional type
and considerable tragic solemnity. Of the two, Donizetti had
the broader musical culture, while Bellini was the more consistently
poetic. Neither of them sympathized with the rougher
and more vulgar sides of Rossini's style, though they were obviously
anxious to imitate him as far as they could. Both contented
themselves chiefly with supplying works in which flowing
and expressive arias occupied the attention, usually with a neglect
of the orchestral element. Their influence fell in with that
of Rossini to hold Italian opera in its old position and to retard
appreciation by the dramatic public of the vigorous new forces
that were at work.
