III.

Later Years

After William Tell Rossini wrote no more operas, although he was only 37 and lived another 40 years. No one knows for certain why he stopped composing at the height of his success, although many explanations have been offered. Some have ascribed it to dislike of the rising dominance of German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer in the Paris opera world; others to Rossini’s resentment at the French government’s efforts to cancel his contract after a revolution in 1830 toppled Charles X. Still others believe progressive ill health was involved, and a few assume laziness. What is known is that he intended to write another opera after William Tell based on Faust, a drama by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is also known that his health deteriorated after 1827, slowly at first and later with alarming rapidity.

From 1830 to 1855 Rossini lived primarily in Italy, at first in Bologna and after 1848 in Florence. A visit to Madrid, Spain, in 1831 inspired his Stabat Mater, which was completed in 1842. In 1832 he met Olympe Pelissier, with whom he fell in love. After the death in 1845 of his wife, from whom he had separated, he married Pelissier. Rossini wrote some songs after that and one more significant work. The Petite Messe Solonnelle (Solemn Little Mass, 1863), his last work, is neither little nor especially solemn, and it contains some beautiful music. During his last decade Rossini wrote many short and humorous piano pieces, which he jokingly called Péchés de viellesse (Sins of Old Age). He did not publish these pieces, and most of them remained unknown until the 1950s. Rossini lived in Paris from 1855 until his death.