Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (; 29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as some sacred music, songs, chamber music, and piano pieces. He was a precocious composer of operas, and he made his debut at age 18 with "La cambiale di matrimonio". His best-known operas include the Italian comedies "The Barber of Seville" ("Il barbiere di Siviglia"), "The Italian Girl in Algiers" ("L'italiana in Algeri"), and "Cinderella" ("La Cenerentola"). He also wrote a string of serious operas in Italian, including works such as "Tancredi", "Otello", and "Semiramide". "The Thieving
Critical edition (opera) Critical edition (opera) A critical edition of an opera has been defined by American musicologist Philip Gossett as "an edition that bases itself wherever possible on the very finest and most accurate sources for an opera. That means that it must study the entire performance history of a work." Gossett continues: The emergence of critical editions of many works from the 19th-century Italian operatic repertory did not begin until the 1950s and resulted from the revival of interest from that time forward in the "bel canto" era—early 1800s to approximately 1850 and known as the "primo ottocento"—written by Gioachino Rossini,