Rossini: The Great Operatic Genius | Classical Destinations With Simon Callow

Simon Callow explores the famous Italian cities of Rome and Naples and witnesses performances of Rossini's `Silken Ladder' and Respighi's `Ancient Airs and Dances'.
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[@ReynaSingh]

Wonderful. Thank you

[@monicacall7532]

Respighi deserves to be much, much better known than he is. Every piece that he wrote is a musical treasure. As a professional musician (cellist) I’ve had the privilege to perform several of his works. He, Rimsky-Korsakov and Ravel are known as the three greatest orchestrators out of all of the composers in history because they had a 6th sense with regard to which combination of instruments and their particular sound qualities would best express the feelings of the music at any given time during its performance. The first time that I visited Rome I made sure to visit the places that Respighi wrote about in his works “The Pines of Rome” (my very favorite) and “The Fountains of Rome”. They looked exactly as the music had portrayed them especially the Trevi Fountain movement and “Pines Along the Appian Way”! On another trip to Italy I was there during the 12 days of Christmas celebrations which end on Epiphany which is January 6. The night before is called “La Befana” in which an old woman, like Santa, brings presents to children the night before the Feast of Epiphany. The celebration was exactly like the way music described it to be in the music that Respighi wrote for his work “Roman Festivals”! I would recommend listeners, even those who don’t think that they like classical music, to listen to Respighi’s music and begin with “The Pines of Rome”. If you have a good stereo system or headphones it’s even better. BTW Respighi was born in the 19th century but he composed but he lived and composed into the 20th century and died in 1936.

[@simonmunuve4881]

Agreed. Its amusing that he ain't as popular as the other greats. Ottorino Respighi is right up there among the best. Ever since I watched his documentary 'A dreamy of Italy, am obsessed with his music. I had never heard of him until I watched it.

[@coco-wd2kg]

Haydn should be added to your short list of greatest orchestrators, may be also Berlioz.

[@inamorata966]

What a super comment. Thoughtful and, for me, educational. Well-done!

[@missygenerationone9597]

There is a lot of Rossini in 19th century composers. There is a lot of rossini in strauss's radezky march, there is a lot of rossini in grieg's "morning". There is a lot of rossini in the arias of Verdi and Bellini. There is a lot of rossini in wagner's titanism, there is a lot of rossini in satie's piano pieces, inspired by the péchés de vieillesse, there is a lot of rossini's ballets in tcaikovski's, so much so that many of rossini's musical passages seem very Russians. And so on. And the stabat mater is one of three or four sacred masterpieces in the history of music. Obviously it doesn't even reach 100k visuals on youtube. To say how underrated he is.

[@picksalot1]

Rossini is certainly one of the greatest composers of all time. I always enjoyed the beautiful music of Respighi called The Birds, and its particularly excellent orchestration. Many years later, I discovered that he had studies with Rimsky-Korsakov, and it all made sense.

[@guldenaydin9918]

💖 Muhteşem... 🎼🎶🎵

[@1968KWT]

Happy Birthday, Rossini! 💐💐💐

[@StephiSensei26]

Grazie tanti! Bellissimo!

[@hannahofbauer180]

love all the podcasts enormously each one is so beautiful produced, nice music and beautiful portrayed by Simon Callow thank you so much

[@bingbongtoysKY]

God i love Rossini

[@Augustus_Imperator]

Beautiful, how did I not know about this wonderful channel before now?

[@lorigoshert6667]

Anyone else singing "Whaaaaaat would you want with a raaaabbit?" around 13:15?

[@tatyanaparakhina6356]

Rossini starts from 9th minute...

[@raymondhummel5211]

Yes Rossini wrote many wonderful operas. One of my favorites is the "'Barber of Seville". I am surprised to learn how successful he was even at a young age. Truly an amazing man of many accomplishments.

[@marisadallavalle393]

First! Giacomo Rossini is my all-time favorite composer of operas, with one exception, Mozart's Don Giovanni.

[@CoeliLux]

**Gioachino

[@TristanMA]

Respighi's Pines of Rome was the first of the Natural works of Respighi and even appeared in Fantasia 2000 with flying Humpback whales.

[@melaniamonicacraciun9900]

This is entertainment for champions fans, if you do not mind to bring in Beijing a nice Opera festival from my behalf and paaaarty, such TV productions deserve an oceanic Olympic stadium audience and get back the Rossini inspiration, we can build together a better humankind fans, wish you never forget how much you mean for me Ok? If you bring your goodies world wide my goal on you is reached.. classical music is our family and we could never stay apart anymore fans, keep calm & love connecting people, young Millennials deserve this level of freedom of expression and let it go, Rossini champion of the world of good vibes

[@KMHill]

Were these programs not produced in stereo sound?

[@2c_4m57]

"Travel is on foot only" as a car drives down it lol

[@viviennehayes2856]

I have just watched this on TV and I was frustrated as to who the second composer was. I know something about music history but had never heard of him. I thought that it was strange that he - Respighi I guess - was never explained - his name was impossible for me to to identify which is why I have looked this episode up here.

[@danyelnicholas]

9 minutes into this confusing and rather chatty documentary and Rossini is mentioned for the first time!

[@w.urlitzer1869]

platitude after platitude.

[@riawessels9844]

Would have loved to watch, but simply could not plough through so much rubbish beforehand.