While opera remains the most acquired of the classical music tastes, opera overtures are pretty easy to digest. Some opera overtures are known to many who don’t consider themselves to be classical ...

If there is a familiar template to the structure of most of Rossini’s opera overtures, Antonio Pappano and his Rome orchestra reveal that there is much more than rum-ti-tum routine in their musical ...

I've always had a soft spot for Gioacchino Rossini's overtures. Their slow introductions and sprightly melodies invariably lead to a big crescendo passage, in which Rossini repeats a motif several ...

Rossini's best overtures all on one disc! If you don't know these tunes by name, you'll know them from countless soundtracks and TV commercials, as they seem to capture the vivacity and colour of ...