Gioachino Rossini - Il barbiere di Siviglia - 'Cessa di piu resistere" and its' various incarnations

Rossini's particular penchant for reusing various musical ideas from his own works is well-known, one doesn't have to look far for an example: Rosina's famous "Io sono docile" reuses some of the thematic material that had previously appeared in "Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra" as the opening lines of the title heroine's opening cavatina (the cabaletta, to be precise).

The musical material that forms the Count's big final aria in "Il barbiere di Siviglia" is no different and follows the maestro's tradition perfectly, having appeared in, to my knowledge, four operas and a cantata in a matter of two years, from 1815 to 1817. I tried to form a basic idea of how Rossini reused his music, thus this version is a pastiche of the various incarnations the Count's big aria lived through.

P.S. I do hope that the transitions from one rendition to the other are as painless as possible.

Here are the pieces and renditions that I have used (in the order the works premiered):

No. 1. "O Numi clementi" from "Torvaldo e Dorliska" (1815) with Paola Cigna as Dorliska. As far as I found out, Rossini first used some small cadential flourishes in the second aria of the heroine from the above-noted opera that were then included in the andante section of the Count's aria (appearing at 3:05).

No. 2. "Cessa di piu resistere" from "Il barbiere di Siviglia" (1816) with Frank Lopardo as Almaviva. The aria, as it is known, first appeared in "Il barbiere".

No. 3. "Ah, non potrian resistere" from "Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo" (1817) with Cecilia Bartoli as Cerere. Rossini was commissioned to write the noted cantata for the wedding of King Ferdinand Is granddaughter to the future King Charles X of France (whose coronation was then celebrated in "Il viaggio a Reims"). The aria remains strikingly similar though there are several additions: while the Count enters at the very beginning of the aria, Cerere's entrance is prolonged by a short prelude; the opening lines are more recitative that the Count's ornamented lines; the two reflective sections (here given as one), breaking up the aria's march-like melody, are made into more lyrical pieces; the coda is similarly elaborate though the finish is completely different; the andante follows closely the original, though it features a much more lush accompaniment; the final crescendos are crowned with higher endings compared to the original. It's interesting to note that, though Rossini reuses pretty much all the original material, he doesn't simply insert the previous incarnation of the aria but elaborates and rewrites it to both suit the singer and the piece's new place. Thus, a rewrite becomes something new and fresh.

No. 4. "Non piu mesta" from "La Cenerentola" (1817) with Joyce DiDonato as Angelina. Rossini recycles two sections from the Count's aria: the tempo di mezzo chorus (or, to be precise, its' finish) and a good half of the stretta (I will try to abstain from using the word "cabaletta" as it doesn't exactly fit into the category), though after the two break-neck fast coloratura lines the piece continues with new music. Actually, not much is different, the lines are almost completely the same (save for the rewrite for contralto), but it goes well with the situation and the character.

No. 5. "Cinga la benda candida" from "Adelaide di Borgogna" (1817) with Majella Cullagh as Adelaide. The final example known to me comes in the forms of the title-heroines second aria which reuses the opening allegro and the central andante, though the cabaletta is different. This version follows the "Cerere version", so there is really nothing new here.

I've added a layout of the pastiche with each number corresponding to the order of the above-noted arias (thus 2 is "Cessa di piu resistere", while 4 is "Non piu mesta"), so that the listeners would be able to follow the changes between the selections without any difficulty :):

Opening allegro:
0:00 (2) 0:23 (5) 0:42 (3) 1:01 (5) 1:13 (2) 1:22 (3) 1:35 (2)

Central andante:
2:26 (3) 2:47 (5) 3:06 (1) 3:20 (2) 3:31 (3) 3:45 (5)

Tempo di mezzo and stretta:
4:08 (2) 4:41 (4) 5:01 (3) 5:22 (2) 5:48 (4) 5:55 (3) 6:03 (2) 6:28 (3) 7:01 (2) 7:20 (3).

Hope this helps and hope you'll enjoy this new upload :).

P.S. If anyone knows of any other reuses of the music, it would be helpful if you wrote me about them, I would then be able to include them for a more through upload :). Cheers :D!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Rossini
• Cessa
• di
• piu
• resistere

[Alicuche2]

In Semiramide, in the aria "La speranza piu suave", you can find another notes from "Cessa di piu resistere", around the minute 4:47.

[LindoroRossini]

Do you mean the final measures of each section of the cabaletta, starting at "E con me delirerai" :)? It does sound extremely like the Count's aria (specifically 6:00 (in this video) but slightly less ornamented and set at a faster pace)! Extraordinary! I never truly made a connection, thank you for this discovery :)!

[agnellodei]

Also must be noted Bellini used a segment of this piece for "Vien diletto"!!!

[LindoroRossini]

Could you show me the place where this occurs, I'm having a bit of a trouble finding it :P? Thank you in advance :)!

[annao273]

Wow! Great work, this is very interesting to hear. And great choice of singers too! I actually didn't realize there were so many settings of this piece. I was only aware of three before I saw this. Now I have to look up the full versions of all of them to compare. I'm glad there are people out there who love Rossini as much as I do!

[nclysander]

This is very entertaining (I love Bartoli and diDonato!) and helpful; however, it might be easier to navigate if you were to transfer some of those notes to annotations. If you don't know how to, I'd love to help; I believe there is a way you can invite others to add annotations.

[agnellodei]

I'll send it to you on mp3, but it is just really simple to find.

[schuyna]

bravaaaaaaaaaaa Cecilia !!!

[lifeambassador4Jesus]

Thank you for sharing this with me:)

[operadm]

Great work. Really interesting to listen to and to read your commentary