Rossini, Gioacchino (Antonio) (b. Feb. 29, 1792, Pesaro, Papal States—d. Nov. 13, 1868, Passy, France) Italian composer. He sang in church and in minor opera roles as a child, began composing at age 12, and at 14 entered Bologna’s conservatory, where he wrote mostly sacred music. From 1812 he produced theatre works at a terrific rate, and for 15 years he was the dominant voice of Italian opera; his major successes included The Italian Girl in Algiers (1813), The Barber of Seville (1816), La cenerentola (1817), and Semiramide (1823). Into the genteel atmo¬ sphere of lingering 18th-century operatic manners, Rossini brought genu¬ ine originality marked by rude wit and humour and a willingness to sacrifice all “rules” of musical and operatic decorum. His career marked the zenith of the bel canto style, a singer-dominated manner of compo¬ sition that emphasized vocal agility and long, florid phrasing. From 1824 he spent much time in Paris, where he wrote his masterpiece, William Tell (1829). After 1832 his health was poor, and he composed little until the series of piano pieces and songs collected as Sins of My Old Age (1868).
Rosso \'ros-so\, Giovanni Battista (di Jacopo) known as Rosso Fiorentino or II Rosso (b. March 8, 1495, Florence, Republic of Florence—d. Nov. 14, 1540, Paris, Fr.) Italian painter and decorator. He trained under Andrea del Sarto, alongside Jacopo da Pontormo, with whom he became a leading figure in the development of Mannerism. In his later work, the highly charged emotionalism of his early works (e.g., the Assumption fresco, 1513-14, in Florence’s Santissima Annunziata) is more subdued; his new style is seen in his Dead Christ with Angels (1525-26). In 1530 he went to France at the invitation of Francis I; there he became a founder of the Fontainebleau school, and the ornamental style he developed influenced decorative arts across northern Europe. He remained in the royal service until his death.
Rostand \ros-'ta n \, Edmond (-Eugene) (b. April 1, 1868, Marseille, France—d. Dec. 2, 1918, Paris) French playwright. He wrote poetry, essays, and plays for puppet theatre before his first stage play. The Red Glove , was performed in 1888. His most popular work is the heroic com¬ edy Cyrano de Bergerac (1898), the story of an ugly, long-nosed soldier who despairs of winning the woman he loves and helps a friend woo her instead. A final, belated example of French Romantic drama, it was enor¬ mously successful internationally. He also wrote The Eaglet (1900) for Sarah Bernhardt.
Rostock Vr6-,st6k\ City (pop., 2002 est.: 198,964) and seaport, north¬ eastern Germany. Located on the Wamow River, 8 mi (13 km) from the Baltic Sea, Rostock was founded in 1218 and was a powerful member of the Hanseatic League in the 14th century. Sailing ships were built in its shipyards from the medieval period until 1851, when the first German
steam-propelled vessel was built there. The city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing in World War II. After the war the town centre was rebuilt, and it was developed as East Germany’s principal ocean port. It is an important fishing and shipbuilding centre; diesel engines and chemical products are manufactured there.
Rostov \r9-'stof\ City (pop., 2002: 34,141), western Russia. First men¬ tioned in chronicles in ad 862, Rostov was an outstanding centre of early medieval Russia. It was the capital of the Rostov-Suzdal principality, which came under the control of Moscow in 1474. In the late 16th cen¬ tury it became an important trade centre on the route between Moscow and the White Sea. The traditional handicraft of enamel on metal contin¬ ues in present-day Rostov.
Rostov-na-Donu Vro-'stof-na-'do-ntA English Rostov-on-Don City (pop., 2002: 1,070,200), southwestern Russia. Located on the Don River about 30 mi (50 km) from the Sea of Azov, it was founded as a customs post in 1749. It was fortified soon after, and, because of its key position as a transport centre and port, it grew steadily with 19th-century Russian colonization. Occupied by the Germans in World War II, it suffered exten¬ sive damage but was rebuilt after the war. It is a transportation and indus¬ trial centre. The city’s nodal location and the proximity of the Donets Basin have led to major industrial development, especially in engineering.
Rostropovich \,r6s-tr3-'po-vich\, Mstislav (Leopoldovich) (b.
March 27, 1927, Baku, Azerbaijan S.S.R., U.S.S.R.) Russian cellist and conductor. He studied composition (with Dmitry Shostakovich), piano, and cello at the Moscow Conservatory from 1943 to 1948. He had works written for him by such composers as Shostakovich, Sergey Prokofiev, and Benjamin Britten. A political dissident, he left the Soviet Union in 1974 and made his career in the West. Settling in the U.S., he served as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra (1977-94) while continu¬ ing to make many solo appearances, becoming perhaps the world’s most famous cellist. As a pianist, he accompanied his wife, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya.
Roswit-ha See Hrosvitha
Rota, Nino (b. Dec. 31, 1911, Milan, Italy—d. April 10, 1979, Rome) Italian composer of film scores. Rota had composed an oratorio and an opera by age 13. After studies at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute he began writing film scores. From 1950 to 1978 he served as director of the Liceo Musicale, a conservatory in Bari. In 1950 he also began his long asso¬ ciation with Federico Fellini, for whom he would score films such as La strada (1955), La dolce vita (1960), 8 V 2 (1963), and Amarcord (1973). He provided scores for many other films including Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974).
rotary engine Internal-combustion engine in which the combustion chambers and cylinders rotate with the driven shaft around a fixed con¬ trol shaft to which pistons are attached. The gas pressures of combustion are used to rotate the shaft. In the Wankel engine, the most fully devel¬ oped and widely used rotary engine, a triangular rotor rotates with an orbital motion in a specially shaped casing, and forms rotating crescent¬ shaped combustion chambers between its sides and the curved wall of the casing.
rotary press Printing press that prints on paper passing between a sup¬ porting cylinder and a cylinder containing the printing plates. In contrast, the flatbed press has a flat printing surface. The rotary press is used mainly in high-speed, web-fed operations in which the press takes paper from a roll, as in newspaper printing. Many of these large presses not only print as many as four colours but also cut and fold and bind in a cover, all in one continuous automatic process. Paper passes through some presses at nearly 20 mph (30 kph); large presses can print up to 60,000 copies of 128 standard-size pages in an hour. See also R. Hoe.
Roth, Philip (Milton) (b. March 19, 1933, Newark, N.J.,U.S.) U.S. writer. Roth attended the University of Chicago and first achieved fame with Goodbye Columbus (1959), whose title story concerns the boorish materialism of a suburban family. His works are characterized by an acute ear for dialogue, a concern with Jewish middle-class life, and the painful entanglements of sexual and familial love. Among his subsequent novels are the comic and scandalous Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) and an admired series centring on a writer named Nathan Zuckerman, including The Ghost Writer (1979) and Zuckerman Unbound (1981). His later works include Sabbath’s Theater (1995, National Book Award) and American Pastoral (1997, Pulitzer Prize).
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, photograph by Lewis Carroll, 1863
THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1646 I Rothko ► Rousseau
Rothko, Mark orig. Marcus Rothkowitz (b. Sept. 25, 1903, Dvinsk, Russia—d. Feb. 25, 1970, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Russian-born U.S. painter. His family settled in Portland, Ore., in 1913, and he took up painting (largely self-taught) after moving to New York City in 1925. His early realistic style culminated in the Subway series (late 1930s). The semi¬ abstract forms of his work in the early 1940s developed into a highly per¬ sonal, contemplative form of Abstract Expressionism by 1948. Unlike many of his fellow Abstract Expressionists. Rothko never relied on such dramatic techniques as violent brush strokes or the dripping and splattering of paint. Instead, his virtually gestureless paintings achieved their effects by juxta¬ posing large areas of melting colours that seemingly float parallel to the picture plane in an indeterminate, atmospheric space. Rothko spent the rest of his life refining this basic style through continuous simplification. In 1965-66 he completed 14 immense canvases, whose sombre intensity reveals his deepening mysticism; they are now housed in a chapel in Hous¬ ton, which was named the Rothko Chapel after his suicide.