Rossi, Lauro
Rossi, Lauro
Rossi, Lauro , Italian composer; b. Macerata, Feb. 19, 1810; d. Cremona, May 5, 1885. He was a pupil of Furno, Zingarelli, and Crescentini at Naples, bringing out a comic opera, Le Contesse villane, there (1829) with fair success. He was asst. director at the Teatro Valle in Rome (1831–33). With his 10th opera, La casa disabitata o I falsi monetari, produced at La Scala, Milan, Aug. 11, 1834, he won a veritable triumph; it made the rounds of Italy and was given in Paris. In 1835 he went to Mexico as conductor and composer to an Italian opera troupe; when it folded, he set up his own opera company, becoming its director in 1837, and going to Havana (1840) and New Orleans (1842), returning to Italy in 1843. He brought out a new opera, Il Borgomastro di Schiedam (Milan, June 1, 1844), with indifferent success; his opera Il Domino nero (Milan, Sept. 1, 1849) fared a little better. His most successful opera was La Contessa di Mons (Turin, Jan. 31, 1874). He wrote 29 operas in all. In 1850 he was given the post of director of the Milan Cons., and in 1870 he succeeded Mercadante as director of the Naples Cons. He resigned in 1878, and retired to Cremona in 1880.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire