Books: Nothing classic about badly composed bio; Mark Brittain was looking forward to a revealing insight into the life of Gioachino Rossini,but was found wanting...

Byline: Mark Brittain

ISN'T it strange how one can just forget about some composers?

Here,after all, is a character who, by the age of 32,had written 39 operas - some of them still instantly recognisable today, by people who have never even set foot inside an opera house - yet whose life is really only known and understood by a devoted handful.

Could it be that Gioachino Rossini was just too tuneful? Too prolific?Too successful?Too shallow?

These are the important questions one wants answered in a biography.

So what does Gaia Servadio have to say?Not a lot,as it happens.

Sadly, this potted life is a jobbing affair, just as many of these ``biographies'' regrettably so often are (despite the author apparently having access to ``previously unpublished letters'').

Adequate if you need to know a passable amount of information to impress at a dinner party,but no real insight. Nothing about what makes an artist tick.

My heart sank when I saw the section and chapter headings: ACT ONE: Scherzo; Adagio; Agitato; Prestissimo,etc. Oh dear.

The writing is,frankly,poor and the editing apparently hurried. Cliche -ridden and repetitive,I struggled through to the end with increasing impatience, and closed the book both irritated and faintly depressed.

A couple of examples will suffice: on page 5 one reads that, ``the 150 miles which link Rome to Naples were bare and brigand-infested.'' On page 52: ``The journey from Naples to Rome was notoriously dangerous, the frontier. ..guarded by corrupt officials and infested with spies. ..coaches were plaqued with insects.''On the very next page: ``Terracina was guarded by corrupt officials and infested with spies; for those making the journey, coaches were. ..plagued with insects.''

And here, surely, is a missed opportunity for word-painting or journalistic ``inquiry'' if ever there was one: ``Rossini and Stenghal met. ..for dinner. ..Countess Saimoyloff,a Russian beauty who had been the Tsar's mistress, was many times married and famous for bathing in milk, like Poppaea. However in her case, the milk which had touched her body was then taken to the Caffe Martini and avidly drunk by her admirers.''(Page 70). Conveyed by a pedestrian, unfortunately. No explanation,nothing else.

I'll freely admit Rossini's music has never much moved me,but I was hoping this book might convert me. It hasn't.

Rossini,by Gaia Servadio (Constable,hb, pounds 20).