Welcome again to our blog of the Italian restaurant Rossini! Today’s post is dedicated to Gioachino Rossini, the figure who embodies the essence of our Italian restaurant located in the heart of Barcelona’s Plaza Real.
Although Rossini is known for being one of the greatest and most admired comic opera composers of the 19th century, he was also known as a simple man who adored the pleasures of life such as gastronomy, art and his friends.
Ready?
Table of contents
Los comienzos humildes del artista
Gioachino Rossini nació en 1792 en la ciudad italiana de Pesaro en el seno de una familia de clase baja. Durante su infancia estuvo frecuentando los coros de las iglesias, donde gracias a su melodiosa voz se ganó la admiración de mucha gente.
Dado al éxito del niño, un peluquero de la ciudad sugirió una idea ambiciosa a su padre para así sacar provecho a su voz y convertirlo en un artista: ¡Rossini estuvo a punto de convertirse en un “castrati”!, ya que para la familia supondría una fuente de ingresos fija y un futuro seguro para su hijo.
Pero gracias a la intervención de su madre se salvó de serlo.
The origin of the passion of the great Rossini
From the age of 14 he began to stand out in the music world as a talented figure who would end up opting for burlesque opera, revolutionizing the theme with new additions such as the bel canto and the ballet numbers.
One of the works that he composed in his youth and led him to success was “The Barber of Seville”, which jumped from a modest theater to the famous San Carlos theater in Naples, and composing more than 30 operas that were henceforth distributed throughout Europe.
In this period Rossini contributed to the transformation of the opera with more romanticist-oriented touches by well-known composers such as Verdi and Wagner, although at the time, at age of 37, he decided to retire and dedicate to live his best passion for food as a respected “Gourmet”.
In fact, one of his most popular quotes is:
“Appetite is the baton conducted by the great orchestra of our passions”
There are even other anecdotes from his friends who say that Rossini was saddened when a truffled turkey fell over the side of a boat … or that the same musician composed his operas while he was eating in restaurants.
Rossini's Musical Saturdays
Once he retired from music, Rossini opted to organize a social activity every Saturday at his home. These were “musical Saturdays”, quality dinners accompanied by live music that became very popular with the Paris bourgeoisie. Only a select number of guests could attend these evenings, who were chosen from among princes, writers, and statesmen.
This was the perfect setting where he brought out his artistic side as a gourmet, creating new dishes for his diners from his favorite ingredient: truffles.
In our Italian restaurant in Plaza Real we have also wanted to show this essence, so every day at 8:00 p.m., you can enjoy live concerts by our pianist while you taste our Italian dishes with a Mediterranean essence.
And to finish….
We say goodbye with another of Rossini’s famous quotes: “Eating, loving, singing, digesting are the four acts of this comic opera that is life“
See you in the next post!
