Geltrude Righetti article by Stendhal, she wrote her famous memoir entitled "Cenni di una donna già cantante sopra il Maestro Rossini...", which includes an account of the première of "The Barber of Seville". Geltrude Righetti Geltrude Righetti (1793–1862) was an Italian contralto closely associated with the operas of Gioachino Rossini. (Her name is also sometimes given as Giorgi-Righetti or Righetti-Giorgi, Giorgi being the name of her husband.) Born in Bologna, she also studied and made her debut there in 1814. The following year she created the important role of Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" and in 1817 she was the first
Gioachino Rossini use of an exciting buildup of orchestral sound over a repeated phrase, which is now commonly known as a "Rossini crescendo". Until his retirement in 1829, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history. Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro, a town on the Adriatic coast of Italy that was then part of the Papal States. His father, Giuseppe, was a horn player and inspector of slaughterhouses. His mother, Anna, was a singer and a baker's daughter. Rossini's father was sympathetic to the French Revolution and welcomed Napoleon's troops when they arrived