With the premiere of the Cambiale di Matrimonio on 3 November 1810 at the St Moisè Theatre in Venice the startling career of Gioachino Rossini was launched. In only 19 years he composed almost 40 operas, becoming in a very short time the most important and critically acclaimed Italian composer of that period, right up until his voluntary retirement from the scene at the age of 37 at the peak of his success. The choice of the buffo genre was all but obligatory for Rossini: at the beginning of the 19th century theatres, particularly those run by impresarios, almost exclusively commissioned this type of opera and the first works he composed for Venice were one act comic farces with minimal scenery, a small orchestra and no chorus, although he would have liked to have proved himself with a serious opera. Even the text by Gaetano Rossi, who himself was taking his first steps on a long and distinguished career path, did not differ substantially in character from the typical bourgeois comedy pervading those years.
The real surprises are in the music which signals an exceptional command of composing skills, not just for a beginner; the nature of the Rossinian buffo style appears perfectly formed, as if the genius was spared the attempts and errors of a normal apprentice.
The overture, in two parts (andante – allegro) takes its inspiration from the classic sonata form, two subjects - in three parts, typical of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, with brilliant melodic themes which return to the lyricism of Italian opera.
Based on the model of his favourite, Mozart, the concert part takes on major importance and is already unmistakably Rossini, with his delight in tongue-twisters and nonsense, punctuated by a rhythmic urge which carries us to the celebrated final crescendo. Even in the reduced dimensions of the single act, Cambiale’s central trio seems to anticipate the pyrotechnics in the first act finales of his mature masterpieces.
The aria for the soprano (Fanny), in three parts (allegro – andante – allegro), closely follows the form of the Italian symphony of the 18th century, particularly enjoyed by audiences for its brilliance; while the arias of the two buffi characters (Mill and Slook) leave the main melody to the orchestra, over which a fragmented singing line develops with very little room to breathe. Virtuosity and coloratura frequently appear both in arias and in ensemble pieces.
The foundation on which Rossini constructed these elements was already perfect thanks to his highly developed sense of theatre; a form which hardly changed in any of his comic works.
The exceptional maturity shown in these works is partly explained by the fact that, in spite of his youth, the composer had already worked on chamber music and sacred works as well as having completed a serious opera, Demetrio & Polibio, not performed however until 1812. In addition, he had acquired experience as a musician and singer in various operatic performances.
His study of Mozart and Haydn masterpieces, which Rossini took to heart in a completely personal way, was fundamental, as was his education at the Bologna Conservatory (Liceo Filarmonico di Bologna) under the tutelage of Father Stanislao Mattei.
Rossini’s humourous operas, of which La Cambiale di Matrimonio is the first example, represent the ideal, unsurpassed pinnacle of a great 18th century tradition. However, they distance themselves from it because of the composer’s fundamental mistrust of the enlightenment values on which the tradition was based. The nostalgic Rossini was both old fashioned and a precursor to the hated Romanticism which was to welcome him (in spite of himself) as one of its models.
Dino Morelli - Carlo Piazza