The Thievish Magpie is an overture from the opera semiseria, or melodrama called La gazza ladra which composed in 1817. The story is about a servant girl who accused of stealing a spoon which actually the magpie of the title did. The maidservant sentenced to death for her crime. Rossini`s overture evokes the image of the opera`s main subject, the devilishly clever, thief magpie.

The overture opens with a few intensifying rolls on the snare drum. This adds a military colour to the piece and also represents one of the characters who is returning home from the war as a hero. Later this effect by the snare drum has different meaning. This time it symbolizes the march of the young maidservant to the scaffold. At the beginning we can hear a brief, almost mournful chord played by the horns than drifting away before the magpie arrives. The following section comprises an elegant and silly melody shared between the woodwinds and the violins. It feels as a conversation with one another and as if one section is eluding the other. This melody continues to build until it reaches an almost dark climax. After the climax, the theme repeats again louder and bigger until it bursts by the snare drum and crash cymbals. Rossini introduced an opera which designated a melodrama, that shades a comic element with darker overtones. The opera sustains a fine balance between funny and tragic. (Causson, 2020)

Reference:

Rossini, G., 1817. Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) – The Thievish Magpie. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJiiBq8UnIY&gt; [Accessed 4 October 2019]

Causson, J., 2020. Gioachino Rossini | Italian Composer. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gioachino-Rossini&gt; [Accessed 4 October 2019]