446 ROSSINI ROSTOPTCIIIN promised opera, and made the season ruinous to the lessees of the theatre. But his visit was profitable to himself, and he left England with 10,000, derived principally from concerts ar- ranged for him by the leaders of fashionable society at enormous prices of admission. Go- ing to Paris, he accepted the post of director of the Italian opera, an office which he held till 1830, with little increase of professional celeb- rity, but with considerable profit. For three years he composed nothing new except a slight piece called // xiaggio a Rheims, a portion of which was reproduced in a graceful French opera entitled Le comte Ory ; but several of his former works were brought out with suc- cess, including his Maometto under the title of Le siege de Corinthe. In 1829 he produced Guillaume Tell, generally considered his mas- terpiece in serious composition, a work abound- ing in beautiful melodies and in rich and varied instrumentation, but so different in style from any of his previous operas that it seems the creation of another mind. With this work, at the ago of 37 and in the prime of his powers, he voluntarily closed his career as a dramatic composer ; and for many years he wrote noth- ing with the exception of his Stabat Mater, a pleasing composition, but rather operatic than ecclesiastical. During his residence in Paris he was appointed by Charles X. inspector gen- eral of singing, with a liberal salary, from the enjoyment of which he was cut off by the rev- olution of 1830. He still remained several years in Paris, claiming compensation for losses he had sustained, and in 1836 retired to an elegant villa near Bologna, where for nearly 20 years he principally resided, refusing the most tempting offers to write for the stage, on the ground that he was unwilling to endanger his reputation by the production of inferior works. Disturbed by the revolutionary ex- citements of 1848, he retired to Florence, but in 1855 returned to Paris, where he chiefly resided till his death. During this interval he composed but one work of importance, his Mutt tolennelle, which he wrote in 1863 and scored for orchestra in 1865. It was first per- formed at the Theatre Italien in Paris, Feb. 28, 1869. He was buried in Pere Laehaise. He left a widow, his second wife. His ope- ras number about 40. He also wrote cantatas, hymns, and miscellaneous vocal and instru- mental pieces. A number of his posthumous pianoforte compositions were sold in 1873 by his widow to Baron Grant, who proposes to publish them in England and to devote the proceeds to the establishment of a prize at the musical academy in London. His larger dra- matic compositions, on which his fame chief- ly rests, illustrate the richness and variety of his melodic invention, his consummate skill in writing for the voice, and the intimate and natural association of florid ornament with the body of the music, which constitutes his pecu- liar style. Many biographies of Rossini have been written, among them the following : Ros- sini e la sua musica, by Bettoni (Milan, 1824) ; Vie de Rossini, by Beyle, under the nom de plume of Stendhal (Paris, 1823-'4) ; Rossini, sa vie et scs oeunres, by Azevedo (Paris, 1865) ; " Life of Rossini," by Edwards (London, 1869) ; Delia vita e delle opere di Gioacchino Rossini, by Silvestri (Milan, 1875); and a life by A. Ganolini (Bolognaj 1875). ROSTAX, Louis Leon, a French surgeon, born at St. Maximin, department of Var, March 16, 1790, died Oct. 4, 1866. He graduated in medicine at Paris in 1812, and was from 1833 professor in the faculty of medicine, with a chair of clinical medicine at the H6tel-Dien. His principal works are : Recherches sur le ra- mollissement du cerveau (1819 ; 2d ed., 1823) ; Traite elementaire de diagnostic (3 vols. 8vo, 1826-7; 2ded., 1829); Cours elementaire d'hy- giene (2 vols., 1828 ; 2d ed., 1838) ; and Ex- position des principes de Vorganicisme (1846 ; 3d ed., 1864). He also published important papers on rupture of the heart, the distinction of aneurisms, transposition of the viscera, spontaneous fracture of the femur, &c. ROSTOCK, a fortified town of Mecklenburg- Schwerin, on the left bank of the Warnow, about 9 m. above its mouth in the Baltic sea, and 95 m. N. E. of Hamburg; pop. in 1871, 30,980. It has a university founded in 1419, which in 1874 had 84 professors and teachers and 135 students, with a library of 80,000 vol- umes. There are also a school of navigation, a gymnasium, a botanic garden, and various literary and charitable institutions. Rostock is a place of great antiquity ; in the middle ages it was a member of the Hansentic league, and its commerce is still very extensive. ROSTOPTCHIN, Fedor, count, a Russian sol- dier, born in the government of Orel about 1765, died in Moscow in January or February, 1826. He became a page of Catharine II. and a favorite of Paul I., under whom he was min- ister of foreign affairs, and received the title of count. Opposed to an alliance with France, and frequently subjected to the caprices of Paul, he was absent from St. Petersburg at the time of his violent death (1801). In 1810 Alexander I. made him grand chamberlain, and in 1812 military governor of Moscow. He displayed much activity in organizing vol- unteer corps; and when against his opinion the evacuation of Moscow was decided upon after the battle of Borodino, he withdrew with the whole army and the population, leaving for the French a deserted city. He set fire to his own suburban palace, but in his La verite sur Vincendie de Moscou (Paris, 1823), he denies having burned the city, though he is generally regarded as the author of the conflagration. Despite his great services, he was removed in 1814 from the governorship of Moscow, and resided till 1823 in Paris, where his daugh- ter married the count Eugene de Segur. An incomplete edition of his works appeared in Paris in 1853. One of his sons published a universal history in French. See Rostoptchine
