This very famous piece by Gioacchino Rossini is part of a collection of 12 songs written between 1830 and 1835 called Soirées musicales. La Danza is still considered the most famous and popular piece of this collection.
Rossini’s Dance was written in Paris in 1835 a few years after having composed his last opera “Il Guglielmo Tell” which was a great success.
Rossini stopped composing operas in 1829 due to a serious illness of the nervous system. However, this disease did not prevent him from giving up music and he still managed to compose sacred and profane pieces. The most famous works of the Pesaro composer are: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Gazza Ladra, Mosè, Guglielmo Tell, La Cenerentola and l’italiana in Algeri.
For the sacred songs we remember: Lo Stabat Mater and the Petite Messe Solennelle.
Rossini loved to define his Soirées musicales as “sins of old age” and this Neapolitan tarantella, La Danza, is certainly one of his best and most envied “sins”.
The term tarantella derives from “taranta” Salento dialect term to indicate a poisonous spider called Lycosa tarentula. The tarantella dance was used as a therapy against the bite of this spider. The frenzy of the dance was thought to expel the venom of the tarantula victim.
A curiosity: Gioacchino Rossini from Pesaro, like Luciano Pavarotti from Modena, was a great lover of cooking and good food ……… and very abundant!
Video: La Danza
Un abbraccio/ a big Hug
Marcus Dardi
