Author: David Hackett

In the 1820s, Gioachino Rossini had been an unstoppable force of nature, turning out brilliant and vibrant operas at a mindboggling rate. His opéras bouffes in particular had set a gold standard for the rest of Europe. But then, not long after completing his masterly Guillaume Tell and still well short of his fortieth birthday, the operatic assembly line had suddenly ground to a halt …

Cesare Pugni was a highly accomplished composer of ballet music who never quite mastered the rest of his life. Supremely talented as he was, he was prone to destructive habits and very good at blowing up his career from time to time …

There was something innately cool about Johannes Brahms. Down to earth, unpretentious and blessed with a rich sense of humour, he was the Romantic who never got too carried away.

He had an uncanny knack for always appearing to know what he was doing and where he was going. As an artist, he was a model for …

Musical fashions can be as fickle as authoritarian regimes, especially if you’re a composer. One moment your name is everywhere, everyone wants a piece of you and you are feted as an integral symbol of the zeitgeist. Then a coup d’etat swings by and switches government, and suddenly you’re out in the cold …

You can love or loathe Richard Wagner. But you can never overstate his monumental influence. Few other western artists have left such a profound impression upon their age. He revolutionized operatic norms, opened up new realms of harmonic possibility and, most strikingly, fused music, dance …

Although a musical giant of mid-nineteenth century France, Jacques Offenbach was surprisingly tiny in person. A spindly, bird-like figure, seldom weighing more than forty-five kilograms, he was “the least imposing man in appearance one could imagine” according to an American music critic …

Whenever we talk about the tragedy of an artist being cut off in their prime, we might spare a particular thought for poor Julius Reubke. He was cut off almost before he had got started. So brief was his time on earth that he made the likes of Schubert, Mozart and Chopin look like venerable old men by comparison …

Regarded by many as the greatest female composer of the nineteenth century, Emilie Mayer was also one of the most fortunate. Helped in no small part by a generous family inheritance, as well as a stoical aversion to marriage, she was able to carve out a life and career largely on her own terms. “She claimed music as her life’s calling,” …

In late nineteenth century France it was generally agreed that Charles Gounod was the living embodiment of French music. After that he divided opinion to a surprising degree. One half of the country thought him an operatic genius on a par with Verdi and Wagner. The other half considered him a conservative reactionary …

When he was twelve years old, Hector Berlioz fell passionately in love with a girl six years his senior. Her name was Estelle – “tall, graceful, with large, grave, questioning eyes that yet could smile,” he fondly recalled, “hair worthy to ornament the helmet of Achilles, and feet – I will not say Andalusian, but pure Parisian …