№ 290/кор. “World Cultural Celebrities” series. 225th birth anniversary of Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868), composer

Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) was an Italian composer, a classic of opera. He was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro, Italy. Rossini's parents began his musical training early; he studied music theory, playing violin and viola, as well as singing. He studied at the Conservatorio di Bologna from 1806 to 1810. 

Rossini received his first great success with his operas La cambiale di matrimonio (The Marriage Contract) (1810) and L'equivoco stravagante (The Curious Misunderstanding) (1811). Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione (The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution) (1816) was a triumph for Rossini. The composer lived in Naples from 1816 to 1823. During these years, he authored Otello (1816), Armida (1817), La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) (1817), La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo (Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant) (1817), Mosè in Egitto (Moses in Egypt) (1818), La donna del lago (The Lady of the Lake) (1819), Maometto II (1820), Zelmira (1822), Semiramide (1823).

He moved to Paris in 1823 and worked as a musical director of the Théâtre-Italien. Rossini was awarded the titles Premier Compositeur du Roi and Inspecteur Général du Chant en France in 1826. Rossini produced Le comte Ory (1828) and Guillaume Tell (William Tell) (1829) in Paris. In 1836, the composer came back to Italy. He took up a position as a director of the Conservatorio di Bologna in 1845.

The envelope with an original stamp contains a composition of symbols of various kinds of art: a lyre, a palette, a book, a quill, a column and a theatre curtain, as well as a portrait of Gioachino Rossini and a score autograph at a music stand.