In 1824, the year after the death of Napoleon, the great French writer, Stendahl, declared: “The King is Dead, but a new conqueror has shown himself to the world.... The fame of this hero knows no bounds save those of civilization itself; and he is not yet 32 years old. Stendahl was of course referring to Gioachino Rossini, the most popular opera composer the world had ever seen. Rossini wrote 38 operas in 20 years, his first when he was only 18. Only a few of those 38 operas are still performed in our own time, mostly his handful of imperishable comedies. The sweetest of these is his version of the Cinderella fairy tale, only Rossini’s retelling includes no magic, only one hilarious and irresistible tune after another.
7 p.m.
