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Casa
Rossini
Via
Rossini, 34 Pesaro (Pesaro e Urbino)
Gioacchino Rossini
(Pesaro,1792 - Parigi,1868)
Rossini’s birth place is among the musicians houses that are worth
visiting in Marche. It conceals in fact a rich museum (part of the Marche
project ‘Museo Diffuso’) and a ‘Parco della Musica’.
The house, a typical urban construction, was built throughout the
fifteenth and the seventeenth century.
There Gioacchino Rossini was born on 29th February 1792. His
mother, Anna Guadarini, was a milliner and a good singer.
His father, Antonio Rossini was a musician. It was him that prompted the
first approach of Gioacchino to the music.
He was first taught in singing and in playing both the spinet (ndt-a
string instrument) and the horn. His studies were mainly focused on the
music of Mozart and Haydn.
This is the reason why he was nicknamed ‘Tedeschino’ (little German).
When he was attending the high school in Pesaro he was awarded a prize for
the composition of ‘Pianto
d’armonia per la morte di Orfeo’.
He soon started to travel all around Europe. In his journeys he reached
Venice, Bologna, Naples, Rome and later also Paris, London and Vienna.
There he met the old Beethoven.
He made occasional journeys back to Pesaro, essentially for work. His
life was now settled in Paris. There he was the director of the ‘Théâtre
Italien’, and there death found him on 13th November 1868.
Going on from where we started Rossini’s house can be described as a
four storey building plus a cellar. It has a rectangular plant enlarged by
an inside square yard. The house was built in the fourteenth century.
Later two stories were added to the primitive block and the outline of the
windows was changed. It underwent a further restoration in the first
decades of 1700. The front was completely rebuilt. The lofts height was
raised and the inside disposition changed.
It was turned into a museum in 1898 when the house was given to Pesaro
Municipality. Lots of legacy have made it a mirror of Gioacchino Rossini
life. Mementos, prints, portraits trace the life and music of the great
artist.
The core of the collection is composed of the 160 pieces that the
Frenchman Alphons Hubert Martel gave with a legacy to Pesaro high school
that is now kept in the museum.
On the ground floor there are all the prints representing the main
interpreters of the Rossini productions of the last years.
The first floor is all dedicated to the portraits of the musician. Among
the others there are a painting and two etchings by Dore (1869) that
depict him while lying on his death bed. An other remarkable work is an
oil on canvas by Marie Francoise Constance La Martinière.
The underground floor is provided with a panoramic screen where films of
the Rossini Opera Festival are projected.
The Didactic section of the Museum organizes every year activities in
collaboration with the local school.
The initiative ‘OperiAmo’ (we love the opera) involves every summer
children and their parents in the discovery of one of Rossini operas.
© 2005
Liberation Ventures Ltd.
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