Dodici Ariette

On 3 May 1827, Rossini wrote from Paris to Giuditta Pasta, who was at that time living in the English capital, a letter of introduction of behalf of “this admirable young man whose talent and personality will do credit to you and to all those willing to take an interest in him.” Vincenzo, a native of Bologna, was the younger brother of Giuseppe Gabussi, father of the singer Rita Gabussi and a famous patriot (like Carlo Pepoli, he fled from Bologna after the 1831 uprising). In London, Vincenzo had great success as a singing master and composer of vocal chamber music, so much so that Francesco Regli, in his famous Dizionario biografico (1860), described him as a ‘new Schubert’ […] The Dodici Ariette contributed in no small measure to launching Gabussi at an international level. […] Significant is the presence in the Dodici Ariette of a text such as Guarda che bianca luna (no. 7) by Jacopo Vittorelli, justly described by Carlida Steffan as an obligatory “textual crossroads”, tackled by dozens of composers (it was set to music not only by Giovanni Battista Perucchini but also by, among others, Schubert, Donizetti, and Verdi).

Vocal extension: C3 - G4