Rossini is the composer of the work. Biographies, stories, facts, photographs. New operas and life in France

Literary works 1975 “Twenty days without war” by K. Simonov. 1976 “Lilac” by Yu. Nagibin. “Nikita”, “Light of Life” by A. Platonov.1977 “ Pedagogical poem"A. Makarenko (6 parts). 1978 "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish", "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel", "The Tale of dead princess and about seven

(29 II 1792, Pesaro - 13 November 1868, Passy, ​​near Paris)

Gioachino Rossini Rossini opened the brilliant 19th century in the music of Italy, followed by a whole galaxy of opera creators: Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, as if passing the baton of the world glory of Italian opera to each other. The author of 37 operas, Rossini raised the genre of opera buffa to unattainable heights. His “The Barber of Seville,” written almost a century after the birth of the genre, became the pinnacle and symbol of opera buffa in general. On the other hand, it was Rossini who completed the almost one and a half century history of the most famous opera genre - opera seria, which conquered all of Europe, and opened the way for the development of a new heroic-patriotic opera of the era of romanticism that replaced it. The main strength of the composer, heir to the Italian national traditions- in the inexhaustible inventiveness of melodies, fascinating, brilliant, virtuosic.

A singer, conductor, and pianist, Rossini was distinguished by his rare friendliness and sociability. Without any envy, he spoke with admiration about the successes of his young Italian contemporaries, ready to help, advise, and support. His admiration for Beethoven, whom Rossini met in Vienna in last years his life. In one of his letters, he wrote about this in his usual humorous manner: “I study Beethoven twice a week, Haydn four, and Mozart every day... Beethoven is a colossus who often gives you a good punch in the side, whereas Mozart always amazing." Rossini called Weber, with whom they competed, “a great genius, and also a genuine one, for he created originality and did not imitate anyone.” He also liked Mendelssohn, especially his Songs without Words. When they met, Rossini asked Mendelssohn to play him Bach, “a lot of Bach”: “His genius is simply overwhelming. If Beethoven is a miracle among men, then Bach is a miracle among gods. I subscribed to full meeting his works." Rossini treated even Wagner, whose work was very far from his operatic ideals, with respect and was interested in the principles of his reform, as evidenced by their meeting in Paris in 1860.

Wit was characteristic of Rossini not only in his work, but also in life. He claimed that this was foreshadowed by the very date of his birth - February 29, 1792. The composer's homeland is the seaside town of Pesaro. His father played the trumpet and horn, his mother, although she did not know notes, was a singer and sang by ear (according to Rossini, “out of a hundred Italian singers eighty are in the same position"). Both were members of a traveling troupe. Gioachino, who showed an early talent for music, at the age of 7, along with writing, arithmetic and Latin, studied the harpsichord, solfeggio and singing at a boarding school in Bologna. At the age of 8, he was already performing in churches, where he was entrusted with the most difficult soprano roles, and once was assigned a child's role in a popular opera. Admiring listeners predicted that Rossini would become famous singer. He accompanied himself from sight, read orchestral scores fluently, and worked as an accompanist and choir director in the theaters of Bologna. In 1804, he began systematically studying the viola and violin; in the spring of 1806, he entered the Bologna Musical Lyceum, and within a few months the famous Bologna Academy of Music unanimously elected him as a member. Then future glory Italy was only 14 years old. And at 15 he wrote his first opera. Stendhal, who heard it several years later, admired its melodies - “the first colors created by Rossini’s imagination; they had all the freshness of the morning of his life.”

He studied at the Lyceum Rossini (including playing the cello) for about 4 years. His counterpoint teacher was the famous Padre Mattei. Rossini subsequently regretted that he could not pass full course composition - he had to earn a living and help his parents. During his years of study, he independently became acquainted with the music of Haydn and Mozart, organized a string quartet, where he performed the viola part; At his insistence, the ensemble replayed many of Haydn's works. From a music lover he borrowed the scores of Haydn’s oratorios and Mozart’s operas and rewrote them: at first only vocal part, to which he composed his own accompaniment, and then compared it with the author’s. However, Rossini dreamed of a much more prestigious career as a singer: “when the composer received fifty ducats, the singer received a thousand.” According to him, he fell on the path of composing almost by accident - a mutation of his voice began. At the Lyceum he tried his hand at different genres: wrote 2 symphonies, 5 string quartets, variations for solo instruments and orchestra, a cantata. One of the symphonies and a cantata were performed at lyceum concerts.

After completing his studies, the 18-year-old composer saw his opera on stage for the first time on November 3, 1810 Venetian theater. On the next autumn season Rossini was engaged by the theater in Bologna to write a two-act opera buffa. During 1812, he composed and staged 6 operas, including one zepa. “I had ideas quickly and all I needed was time to write them down. I've never been one of those people who sweats when composing music." The opera buffa "Touchstone" was staged in the largest theater Italy, Milan's La Scala, where it took place 50 times in a row; to listen to her, according to Stendhal, “crowds of people came to Milan from Parma, Piacenza, Bergamo and Brescia and from all the cities within twenty miles in the area. Rossini became the first man of his region; everyone wanted to see him at all costs.” And for the 20-year-old author, the opera brought liberation from military service: The general commanding in Milan liked “Touchstone” so much that he turned to the viceroy, and the army was missing one soldier.

The turning point in Rossini’s work was the year 1813, when, within three and a half months, two operas that are popular to this day (Tancred and Italian in Algiers) saw the light of the stage in the theaters of Venice, and the third, which failed at the premiere and is now forgotten, brought an immortal overture - Rossini used it twice more, and now everyone knows it as the overture to The Barber of Seville. After 4 years, the impresario of one of the best theaters Italy and the largest in Europe, Neapolitan San Carlo, the enterprising and successful Domenico Barbaia, nicknamed the Viceroy of Naples, signed a long-term contract with Rossini for 6 years. The prima donna of the troupe was the beautiful Spaniard Isabella Colbran, who had a luxurious voice and dramatic talent. She had known the composer for a long time - in the same year, 14-year-old Rossini and Colbran, 7 years older than him, were elected members of the Bologna Academy. Now she was a friend of Barbaya and at the same time enjoyed the patronage of the king. Colbran soon became Rossini's lover, and in 1822, his wife.

Over the course of 6 years (1816-1822), the composer wrote 10 seria operas for Naples, based on Colbran, and 9 for other theaters, mainly buffa, since Colbran did not perform comic roles. Among them are “The Barber of Seville” and “Cinderella”. At the same time, a new romantic genre was born, which would later supplant opera seria: folk-heroic opera, dedicated to the theme of the struggle for liberation, with the depiction of large masses of people, the widespread use of choral scenes, occupying no less a place than arias (“Moses”, “ Mohammed II").

1822 opens new page in the life of Rossini. In the spring, he and the Neapolitan troupe go to Vienna, where his operas have been successfully staged for 6 years. For 4 months, Rossini basked in the rays of fame, he was recognized on the streets, crowds gathered under the windows of his house to see the composer, and sometimes listen to him sing. In Vienna, he meets Beethoven - sick, lonely, huddled in a squalid apartment, whom Rossini tries in vain to help. The Vienna tour was followed by a London tour that was even longer and more successful. For 7 months, until the end of July 1824, he conducted his operas in London, performed as an accompanist and singer in public and private concerts, including in the royal palace: the English king is one of his most loyal fans. The cantata “The Complaint of the Muses on the Death of Lord Byron” was also written here, at the premiere of which the composer sang the part of the solo tenor. At the end of the tour, Rossini took out a fortune from England - 175 thousand francs, which made him remember the fee for his first opera - 200 lire. And not even 15 years have passed since then...

After London, Rossini waited for Paris and a well-paid position as head of the Italian Opera. However, Rossini remained in this post for only 2 years, although he made a dizzying career: “composer to His Majesty the King and inspector of singing of all musical institutions"(highest musical position in France), member of the Council for the Management of the Royal Schools of Music, member of the Grand Opera committee. Here Rossini created his innovative score - the folk-heroic opera William Tell. Born on the eve of the revolution of 1830, it was perceived by contemporaries as a direct call for uprising. And at this peak, at the age of 37, Rossini stopped his operatic activities. However, he did not stop composing. 3 years before his death, he said to one of his guests: “Do you see this bookcase full of musical manuscripts? All this was written after William Tell. But I don't publish anything; I write because I cannot do otherwise.”

Rossini's largest works of this period belong to the genre of spiritual oratorio (Stabat Mater, Little Solemn Mass). A lot of chamber music was created vocal music. The most famous ariettas and duets made up “Musical Evenings”, others were included in the “Album Italian songs", "Mixture of vocal music". Rossini wrote and instrumental pieces, often providing them with ironic titles: “Restrained plays”, “Four appetizers and four desserts”, “Painkiller music”, etc.

From 1836, Rossini returned to Italy for almost 20 years. He devotes himself to teaching work, supporting the newly founded Experimental Musical Gymnasium in Florence, and the Bologna Musical Lyceum, which he himself once graduated from. For the last 13 years, Rossini has been living in France again, both in Paris itself and in a villa on the outskirts of Passy, ​​surrounded by honor and glory. After the death of Colbran (1845), from whom he separated about 10 years earlier, Rossini married the Frenchwoman Olympe Pelissier. Contemporaries characterize her as an unremarkable woman, but endowed with responsive and kind hearted, however Italian friends Rossini considers her stingy and inhospitable. The composer regularly organizes receptions that are famous throughout Paris. These “Rossini Saturdays” gather the most brilliant society, attracted by both sophisticated conversation and exquisite cuisine, of which the composer was reputed to be an expert and was even the inventor of some culinary recipes. The sumptuous dinner was followed by a concert, the owner often sang and accompanied the singers. The last such evening took place on September 20, 1868, when the composer was 77 years old; he performed the recently composed elegy “Farewell to Life.”

Rossini died on November 13, 1868 at his villa in Passy near Paris. In his will he allocated two and a half million francs for the creation music school in his native Pesaro, where 4 years earlier a monument was erected to him, as well as a large sum for the establishment in Passy of a home for elderly singers - French and Italian, who had made a career in France. About 4 thousand people attended the funeral mass. The funeral procession was accompanied by two battalions of infantry and bands of two legions National Guard, who performed excerpts from operas and spiritual works by Rossini.

The composer was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris next to Bellini, Cherubini and Chopin. Upon learning of Rossini's death, Verdi wrote: “A great name has died out in the world! It was the most popular name our era, the widest fame - and this was the glory of Italy! He invited Italian composers to honor the memory of Rossini by writing a collective Requiem, which was to be solemnly performed in Bologna on the first anniversary of his death. In 1887, Rossini's embalmed body was transported to Florence and buried in the Cathedral of Santa Croce, in the pantheon of the great men of Italy, next to the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo.

A. Koenigsberg

Italian composer. One of the outstanding representatives of the opera genre in the 19th century. His work is at the same time the completion of the development music XVIII V. and opens the way to the artistic achievements of romanticism. His first opera, Demetrio and Polibio (1806), was written quite in line with the traditional opera seria. Rossini turned to this genre more than once. Among best essays"Tancred" (1813), "Othello" (1816), "Moses in Egypt" (1818), "Zelmira" (1822, Naples, libretto by A. Tottola), "Semiramis" (1823).

Rossini made a huge contribution to the development of opera buffa. The first experiments in this genre were “Promissory Note for Marriage” (1810, Venice, libretto by G. Rossi), “Signor Bruschino” (1813) and a number of other works. It was in opera buffa that Rossini created his own type of overture, based on the contrast of a slow introduction followed by a rapid allegro. We see one of the earliest classical examples of such an overture in his opera The Silk Staircase (1812). Finally, in 1813, Rossini created his first masterpiece in the buffo genre: “An Italian Woman in Algiers,” where the features of the composer’s mature style are already clearly visible, especially in the remarkable finale of the first act. His success was also the opera buffa “The Turk in Italy” ( 1814). Two years later, the composer writes his best opera"The Barber of Seville", rightfully occupying an outstanding place in the history of the genre.

Created in 1817, Cinderella demonstrates Rossini's desire to expand the palette of artistic media. Purely buffoonish elements are replaced by a combination of comic and lyrical principles; in the same year, “The Thieving Magpie” appears, written in the genre of opera-semiseria, in which lyrical-comedy elements coexist with tragic ones (how can one not recall Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”). In 1819, Rossini created one of his most romantic works - “The Virgin of the Lake” (based on the novel by W. Scott).

Among his later works, “The Siege of Corinth” (1826, Paris, is a French edition of his earlier opera series “Mahomet II”), “Count Ory” (1828), written in the style of French comic opera (in which the composer used a number of the most successful the theme from the opera "Journey to Reims", created three years earlier on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles X in Reims), and, finally, the last masterpiece Rossini - "William Tell" (1829). This opera, with its drama, individually outlined characters, large cross-cutting scenes, already belongs to another musical era- the age of romanticism. This essay concludes creative path Rossini as opera composer. Over the next 30 years, he created a number of vocal and instrumental works (among them “Stabat Mater”, etc.), vocal and piano miniatures.

(1792-1868) Italian composer

G. Rossini is an outstanding Italian composer of the last century, whose work marked the heyday of the national opera art. He managed to breathe new life into the traditional Italian types of opera - comic (buffa) and “serious” (seria). Rossini's talent was revealed especially clearly in opera buffa. The realism of life sketches, accuracy in depicting characters, swiftness of action, melodic richness and sparkling wit ensured his works enormous popularity.

Rossini's period of intense creativity lasted about 20 years. During this time, he created over 30 operas, many of which in a short time went around the capital theaters of Europe and brought the author worldwide fame.

Gioachino Rossini was born on February 29, 1792 in Pesaro. The future composer had a wonderful voice and sang in church choirs from the age of 8. At the age of 14 he undertook independent trip with a small theater troupe as conductor. Rossini completed his education at the Bologna Musical Lyceum, after which he chose the path of an opera composer.

Moving from city to city and fulfilling orders from local theaters, he wrote several operas a year. The works created in 1813 - the opera buffa "Italian in Algiers" and the heroic opera-serial "Tancred" - brought him wide fame. The melodies of Rossini's arias were sung on the streets of Italian cities. “In Italy there lives a man,” Stendhal wrote, “about whom they talk more than about Napoleon; this is a composer who is not yet twenty years old.”

In 1815, Rossini was invited to become resident composer at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. It was one of the best theaters of that time, with excellent singers and musicians. The first opera he wrote in Naples, “Elizabeth, Queen of England,” was received with enthusiasm. A stage of calm, prosperous life began in Rossini’s life. It was in Naples that all of his major operas. His musical and theatrical style reached high maturity in the monumental heroic operas Moses (1818) and Mohammed II (1820). In 1816, Rossini wrote the comic opera “The Barber of Seville” based on famous comedy Beaumarchais. Its premiere was also a triumphant success, and soon the whole of Italy was singing melodies from this opera.

In 1822, the political reaction that occurred in Italy forced Rossini to leave his homeland. He went on tour with a group of artists. They performed in London, Berlin, Vienna. There Rossini met Beethoven, Schubert and Berlioz.

From 1824 he settled in Paris. For several years he served as head of the Italian opera house. Taking into account the requirements of the French stage, he reworked a number of previous operas and created new ones. High achievement Rossini produced the heroic-romantic opera William Tell (1829), which glorified the leader of the national liberation struggle in Switzerland in the 14th century. Appearing on the eve of the 1830 revolution, this opera responded to the freedom-loving sentiments of the leading part of French society. "William Tell" is Rossini's last opera.

In bloom creative forces Before reaching forty, Rossini suddenly stopped writing opera music. He was studying concert activities, composed instrumental pieces, traveled a lot. In 1836 he returned to Italy, living first in Bologna and then in Florence. In 1848, Rossini composed the Italian national anthem.

But soon after this he returned to France again and settled on his estate in Passy, ​​near Paris. His house became one of the centers of artistic life. Many famous singers, composers, and writers attended the musical evenings that he organized. In particular, there are known memories of one of these concerts, written by I. S. Turgenev. It is curious that one of Rossini’s hobbies during these years was cooking. He loved to treat his guests to his own prepared dishes. “Why do you need my music if you have my pate?” - the composer jokingly said to one of the guests.

Gioachino Rossini died on November 13, 1868. A few years later, his ashes were transported to Florence and solemnly buried in the pantheon of the Church of Santa Croce next to the remains of other prominent figures of Italian culture.

Born on February 29, 1792 in Pesaro in the family of a city trumpeter (herald) and a singer. He fell in love with music very early, especially singing, but began to study seriously only at the age of 14, when he entered the Musical Lyceum in Bologna. There he studied cello playing and counterpoint until 1810, when Rossini's first noteworthy work, the one-act farce opera La cambiale di matrimonio, 1810, was staged in Venice. It was followed by a number of operas of the same type, among which two - The Touchstone (La pietra del paragone, 1812) and The Silk Staircase (La scala di seta, 1812) - are still popular.

Finally, in 1813, Rossini composed two operas that immortalized his name: Tancredi according to Tasso and then the two-act opera buffa Italiana in Algiers (L"italiana in Algeri), triumphantly received in Venice, and then throughout Northern Italy.

The young composer tried to compose several operas for Milan and Venice, but none of them (even the opera The Turk in Italy, which retained its charm, Il Turco in Italia, 1814) was a kind of “pair” to the opera The Italian in Algeria) was successful. In 1815, Rossini was lucky again, this time in Naples, where he signed a contract with the impresario of the San Carlo Theater. It's about about the opera Elizabeth, Queen of England (Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra), a virtuoso work written especially for Isabella Colbran, a Spanish prima donna (soprano) who enjoyed the favor of the Neapolitan court and mistress of the impresario (a few years later, Isabella became Rossini's wife). Then the composer went to Rome, where he planned to write and stage several operas, the second of which was the opera The Barbiere of Seville (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), first staged on February 20, 1816. The failure of the opera at the premiere turned out to be as loud as its triumph in the future.

Having returned, in accordance with the terms of the contract, to Naples, Rossini staged there in December 1816 the opera that was perhaps most highly appreciated by his contemporaries - Othello according to Shakespeare: it contains truly beautiful fragments, but the work is spoiled by the libretto, which distorted Shakespeare's tragedy. Rossini composed his next opera again for Rome: his Cenerentola (La cenerentola, 1817) was subsequently favorably received by the public; the premiere did not give any grounds for assumptions about future success. However, Rossini took the failure much more calmly. Also in 1817, he traveled to Milan to stage the opera The Thieving Magpie (La gazza ladra) - an elegantly orchestrated melodrama, now almost forgotten, except for the magnificent overture. Upon his return to Naples, Rossini staged the opera Armida there at the end of the year, which was warmly received and is still rated much higher than The Thieving Magpie: in the resurrection of Armida in our time there is still a feeling of tenderness, if not sensuality, that this music emits.

Over the next four years, Rossini managed to compose a dozen more operas, mostly not particularly interesting. However, before the termination of the contract with Naples, he gave the city two outstanding works. In 1818 he wrote the opera Moses in Egypt (Mos in Egitto), which soon conquered Europe; in fact, this is a kind of oratorio, notable here are the majestic choirs and the famous “Prayer”. In 1819 Rossini presented La donna del lago, which was a somewhat more modest success but contained a charming romantic music. When the composer eventually left Naples (1820), he took Isabella Colbran with him and married her, but later they family life did not proceed very happily.

In 1822, Rossini, accompanied by his wife, left Italy for the first time: he entered into an agreement with his old friend, the impresario of the San Carlo Theater, who now became director Vienna Opera. The composer brought his last job– the opera Zelmira, which won the author unprecedented success. True, some musicians, led by K.M. von Weber, sharply criticized Rossini, but others, and among them F. Schubert, gave favorable assessments. As for society, it unconditionally took Rossini’s side. The most remarkable event of Rossini's trip to Vienna was his meeting with Beethoven, which he later recalled in a conversation with R. Wagner.

In the autumn of the same year, the composer was summoned to Verona by Prince Metternich himself: Rossini was supposed to honor the conclusion of the Holy Alliance with cantatas. In February 1823 he composed for Venice new opera– Semiramis, from which it now remains in concert repertoire just an overture. Be that as it may, Semiramis can be considered the culmination Italian period in Rossini's work, if only because it was the last opera he composed for Italy. Moreover, Semiramis performed so brilliantly in other countries that after it, Rossini’s reputation as the greatest opera composer of the era was no longer subject to any doubt. No wonder Stendhal compared Rossini’s triumph in the field of music with Napoleon’s victory in the Battle of Austerlitz.

At the end of 1823, Rossini found himself in London (where he stayed for six months), and before that he spent a month in Paris. The composer was hospitably received by King George VI, with whom he sang duets; Rossini was in great demand secular society as a singer and accompanist. The most important event that time was the receipt of an invitation to Paris as artistic director opera house "Teatro Italien". The significance of this contract, firstly, is that it determined the composer’s place of residence until the end of his days, and secondly, that it confirmed the absolute superiority of Rossini as an opera composer. It must be remembered that Paris was then the center of the musical universe; an invitation to Paris was the highest honor imaginable for a musician.

Rossini began his new duties on December 1, 1824. Apparently, he managed to improve management Italian opera, especially in terms of conducting performances. The performances of two previously written operas, which Rossini radically reworked for Paris, were a great success, and most importantly, he composed the charming comic opera Count Ory (Le comte Ory). (It was, predictably, a huge success when it was revived in 1959.) Next piece Rossini's opera, Guillaume Tell, appeared in August 1829, a work generally considered the composer's greatest achievement. Recognized by performers and critics as an absolute masterpiece, this opera nevertheless never aroused such enthusiasm among the public as The Barber of Seville, Semiramis or even Moses: ordinary listeners considered Tell an opera too long and cold. However, it cannot be denied that the second act contains the most beautiful music, and fortunately, this opera has not completely disappeared from the modern world repertoire and the listener of our days has the opportunity to make his own judgment about it. Let us only note that all Rossini’s operas created in France were written to French librettos.

After William Tell, Rossini wrote no more operas, and in the next four decades he created only two significant compositions in other genres. Needless to say, such a cessation composer activity at the very zenith of skill and glory - unique phenomenon in world history musical culture. Many different explanations for this phenomenon have been proposed, but, of course, no one knows the full truth. Some said that Rossini's departure was caused by his rejection of the new Parisian opera idol - J. Meyerbeer; others pointed to the insult caused to Rossini by the actions of the French government, which tried to terminate the contract with the composer after the revolution in 1830. Mention was also made of the deterioration of the musician’s well-being and even his allegedly incredible laziness. Perhaps all the factors mentioned above played a role, except the last one. It should be taken into account that, leaving Paris after William Tell, Rossini had the firm intention of starting a new opera (Faust). He is also known to have pursued and won a six-year lawsuit against the French government over his pension. As for his state of health, having experienced the shock of the death of his beloved mother in 1827, Rossini actually felt unwell, at first not very strong, but later progressing with alarming speed. Everything else is more or less plausible speculation.

During the decade that followed Tell, Rossini, although keeping an apartment in Paris, lived mainly in Bologna, where he hoped to find the peace he needed after nervous tension previous years. True, in 1831 he traveled to Madrid, where the now widely known Stabat Mater (in the first edition) appeared, and in 1836 to Frankfurt, where he met F. Mendelssohn and thanks to him discovered the work of J. S. Bach. But still, it was Bologna (not counting regular trips to Paris in connection with the litigation) that remained the composer’s permanent residence. It can be assumed that it was not only court cases that called him to Paris. In 1832 Rossini met Olympia Pelissier. Rossini's relationship with his wife had long left much to be desired; In the end, the couple decided to separate, and Rossini married Olympia, who became a good wife for the sick Rossini. Finally, in 1855, after a scandal in Bologna and disappointment from Florence, Olympia convinced her husband to hire a carriage (he did not recognize trains) and go to Paris. Very slowly his physical and mental condition began to improve; a share of, if not gaiety, then wit returned to him; music, which had been a taboo subject for many years, began to come to his mind again. April 15, 1857 - Olympia's name day - became a kind of turning point: on this day Rossini dedicated a cycle of romances to his wife, which he composed in secret from everyone. It was followed by a series of small plays - Rossini called them The Sins of My Old Age; The quality of this music requires no comment for fans of La boutique fantasque, the ballet for which the plays served as the basis. Finally, in 1863, Rossini's last - and truly significant - work appeared: Petite messe solennelle. This mass is not very solemn and not at all small, but beautiful in music and imbued with deep sincerity, which attracted the attention of the musicians to the composition.

Rossini died on November 13, 1868 and was buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise cemetery. After 19 years, at the request of the Italian government, the coffin with the composer’s body was transported to Florence and buried in the Church of Santa Croce next to the ashes of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli and other great Italians.