LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET 1881 [_All Rights Reserved_] LONDON: R CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL, E. C. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. ROSSINI'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 1 II. LA PIETRA DEL PARAGONE 11 III. ITALIAN OPERA UNTIL THE TIME OF ROSSINI 19 IV. TANCREDI 27 V. OPERATIC CUSTOMS IN ROSSINI'S TIME 33 VI. ROSSINI AT NAPLES 42 VII. PREPARATIONS FOR THE BARBER 50 VIII. IL BARBIERE 59 IX. ROSSINI AND THE COMIC IN MUSIC 68 X. FROM OTELLO TO SEMIRAMIDE 72 XI. ROSSINI ON HIS TRAVELS 79 XII. DONIZETTI 89 XIII. VERDI 106 LIST OF ROSSINI'S PUBLISHED WORKS 113 ROSSINI AND HIS SCHOOL. CHAPTER I. ROSSINI'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. A contemporary of Cimarosa and of Paisiello, his predecessors, but not, except at the very outset of his career, his models, and of Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi, his successors, and in an artistic sense his followers, Rossini is a central figure in the nineteenth-century history of Italian music.