Rossini: a Life.(Book Review)(Brief Article)

by Gaia Servadio Carroll & Graf(Avalon), 256 pp. $26

"I have aimed to write a story, not an academic book," notes the author, "the story of Rossini's life entwined with the story of his time." Incentive called in December 2001, at a Sotheby's sale in London, via some 250 mostly unpublished letters between Rossini, his wife Isabella Colbran and his parents. Gaia Servadio, a TV broadcaster and journalist based in London, has kept her word: this latest Rossini biography tells a story, unencumbered by numbered footnotes and other niceties, though a "bibliographical note" at the end loosely identifies her sources. The book is divided into five "acts," each subdivided into chapters coyly tagged, like symphonic movements, with Italian musical terms. The narrative, though crammed with facts, flows unimpeded except by stylistic self-indulgence, especially in the slapdash use or omission of commas, so that one often has to reread a sentence to sort out its meaning.

The author's reliance on entertainment value accords well enough with Rossini's own aims, both artistic and social. Her treatment inspires less confidence where it presumes to plumb his innermost thoughts and feelings--which, she admits, he was at pains to keep to himself, ...