About this concert
Rossini wrote his Petite Messe Solennelle in 1863, more than thirty years after his last opera, and despite its name it is neither small nor especially solemn. It was first scored for twelve singers, two pianos and harmonium, a chamber setting that brings out its mix of operatic melody and old-style counterpoint. The choir performed it under Nayer Nagui in the lobby of the Cairo Opera House, the first of several performances of the work over the years.
Programme
- Work
- Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle
About the music
Gioachino Rossini, Petite Messe Solennelle
- Composed in 1863 at Passy, near Paris, when Rossini was about 71, decades after his last opera.
- Scored for twelve singers, two pianos and harmonium; first performed on 14 March 1864 in the Paris home of the Comtesse Louise de Pillet-Will, its dedicatee.
- Rossini wrote on the score: “Dear Lord, here it is finished, this poor little mass.”
- He orchestrated it in 1867; that version was first heard in 1869, three months after his death.
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