Lauro Rossi

Lauro Rossi was an Italian Romantic-era composer, primarily known for his operas. Born in Macerata on 19 February 1810 and educated in Naples under prominent teachers such as Giovanni Furno, Niccolò Zingarelli and Girolamo Crescentini, he made his operatic debut in 1829 with Le contesse villane and achieved significant success in 1834 at La Scala in Milan with La casa disabitata (later revised as I falsi monetari). Between 1835 and 1843 he served as composer-impresario and toured Mexico, Cuba and New Orleans with his own opera company. On returning to Italy, he assumed major institutional roles: from 1850 to 1870 he was director of the Milan Conservatory, and from 1870 to 1878 the Naples Conservatory. He also participated, at the invitation of Giuseppe Verdi, in the joint composition of the Messa per Rossini writing the Agnus Dei. His output includes around 28-29 operas (many of them buffa), as well as sacred and chamber music, vocal exercises and a practical guide to harmony. Rossi was honoured by numerous academies and his name was given to the municipal theatre in his native Macerata.

Early in his career he experienced a serious fiasco in 1835, which contributed to his departure from Naples and his subsequent travels in the Americas. Before this period he had also served as director of the Teatro Valle in Rome from 1832 to 1834, where he staged Il disertore svizzero. During his time abroad he married the prima donna of his company, Isabella Obermayer, and following her death in 1851 he later married Sofia Camererdi, with whom he had two children, and subsequently the singer Matilde Ballarini.

Rossi continued composing throughout his academic career, and two of his later operas, La contessa di Mons and Cleopatra, enjoyed notable acclaim. His semiseria Il domino nero was also well received. In addition to his Italian honours, he was elected to the Academy of St Cecilia in Havana and to its distinguished counterpart in Rome, and he held honorary titles such as rector of the Higher School of Singing in Cremona.

In 1882 he moved to Cremona, where he died on 5 May 1885. Among his pupils was Francesco D'Arcais, and his legacy extended through both his compositions and his influential pedagogical work.

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