Overtures

Rossini's early studies in music were with his father and mother, and with other teachers through the generosity of rich patrons. In childhood he had already started to show ability as a composer and his experience in the opera-house bore natural fruit in a remarkable and meteoric career that began in 1810 with the production of La cambiale di matrimonio in Venice in 1810. There followed a series of operas, comic and tragic, until the relatively poor reception of Semiramide in Venice in 1823 turned his attention to Paris. Under the Bourbon King Charles X Rossini staged French versions of earlier works and, in 1829, Guillaume Tell. A contract for further operas came to nothing when the King was replaced in the revolution of 1830 by Louis-Philippe, although eventually Rossini was able to have his agreed annuity restored.