Memoirs of Rossini

Marie-Henri Beyle (17831842) better known by his pen name Stendhal is remembered today for such novels as Le Rouge et le Noir. Over the course of his life he wrote in a variety of literary genres and under a multitude of names or anonymously. Reissued here is the 1824 English translation of his Vie de Rossini of the same year which was accused of being partly plagiarised from Giuseppe Carpani''s Le Rossiniane following similar claims regarding his biographies of Haydn and Mozart (which are also reissued together in translation in this series). Best known for William Tell and The Barber of Seville Gioachino Rossini (17921868) was by far the most popular opera composer of his day adored by his public. Colourful vigorous and forthright Stendhal''s brilliant though somewhat unreliable biography offers an opinionated contemporary critique of ''Signor Crescendo''.