10 Facts About Alessandro Rolla

Alessandro Rolla was an Italian viola and violin virtuoso, composer, conductor and teacher.

Alessandro Rolla's son, Antonio Rolla, was a violin virtuoso and composer.

Alessandro Rolla conducted the first Milanese performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, La clemenza di Tito and The Marriage of Figaro and Beethoven's first symphonies.

Alessandro Rolla frequented the aristocracy drawing rooms, meeting artists and poets, playing for them and dedicating several compositions to them.

In 1808 the Conservatoire of Music in Milan was inaugurated and Alessandro Rolla was appointed professor of violin and viola.

Alessandro Rolla wrote about 500 works, from didactic compositions to sonatas, quartets, symphonies, concertos for violin, and at least 13 concertos and other works for viola and orchestra.

Alessandro Rolla continued to compose and play chamber music until few months before his death at 84.

Alessandro Rolla was a musician of European vision, an innovator in his own field who was able to learn from the best of his contemporaries.

Alessandro Rolla often used themes from operas for his variations.

Bertini, a historian of his time, in a dictionary of musicians reported that Alessandro Rolla was prohibited from playing in public because women could not hear him without fainting or suffering attacks of nerves.