February 29. Leap Day. That extra 24 hours jammed in between February and March every four years that makes up for the Earth’s revolving around the Sun at approximately 365.25 days per year instead of an even 365. On this day in 1504, Christopher Columbus used a lunar eclipse to frighten natives into providing food for his crew while stranded in Jamaica; in 1892, St. Petersburg, Florida, was incorporated; in 1940 Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards; and in 1960 an earthquake struck southern Morocco.

The day does have some musical significance. For one thing, Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots was premiered on Feb. 29, 1836, in Paris to overwhelming success. For another, it’s a major plot device in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. And there are musical birthdays: Ja Rule (1976), Dinah Shore (1916), Jimmy Dorsey (1904), and most importantly for our purposes, February 29, 2008, is the 54th actual birthday of Gioachino Rossini (1792). It’s not a milestone birthday, but if your birthday only comes around every four years, you celebrate what you can when you can, and Rossini was the kind of guy who would enjoy a good party.

Rossini’s two passions in life — music and food — were inheritances from his parents. His father is said to have occasionally been a slaughterhouse inspector as well as a horn player, and his mother, a singer at various theaters in northern Italy, was the daughter of a baker. Rossini grew up in the theater, living a Bohemian life that would be very hard to carry off today in most countries with child labor and education laws. Rossini never worked harder than he had to, although when he was at the height of his compositional career he was very prolific. There are stories of people making sure he stayed at his desk and tossing pages out of the window down to copyists as Rossini finished them. By the time Rossini was 9 (or 37 in human years), he had gained enough fame and fortune to retire from composing and the theater. He spent the rest of his life composing to amuse himself and share with friends (and his dog — Arthur Sullivan said Rossini told him [in jest?] that he always wrote a birthday piece for his dog). Particularly after Rossini moved to Paris in 1855, his home became known for its salons and “Samedi Soirs,” parties that attracted the crème de la crème of society.

So what should you do to celebrate Rossini’s birthday? Throw a party, of course!

For party games, try making as many words as possible out of his name. Mild amusement can be achieved by plugging it — with one or two C’s in the first name — into an anagram generator on the web. You’ll get results like these, with one C:

• I Irish Casino Goon
• Ciao Rigs His Onion
• Oho, Iris Sang Ionic
• Sing Ionic Airs, Oho
• Ooh, I Sing Sonic Air

Or these, with two C’s:

• Ooh, Sir Gains Iconic
• Sing Ciao, Choir Ions
• I Sing A Cocoon Irish
• Sing Ciao, Choir Is On
• Oh Sing Air So Iconic
• Sing Ciao I Croon His
• I Sing In His Rococo A
• Nor Sing Ciao, Hi Cosi

Next, you can have some fun with quotes by Rossini:

1. “Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind,” is a paraphrase of “Tous les genres sont bons, hors le genre ennuyeux,” originally by what French author?
2. Fill in the blank: “Give me a ___________ and I’ll set it to music.” (Remember, this is before telephone books.)
3. Of which composer was Rossini speaking when he said: “________ has beautiful moments, but bad quarters of an hour.”

If you and your friends like to watch cartoons, there are several to choose from featuring Rossini’s music. You could pop in your Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs and watch 1949’s Long-Haired Hare, wherein Bugs interrupts Giovanni Jones rehearsing the “Largo al Factotum” from the Barber of Seville. A very similar plot is found in the 1964 Tom and Jerry cartoon, The Cat Above and the Mouse Below, also directed by Chuck Jones. Better known is 1950’s The Rabbit of Seville, the Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd classic set to the complete overture to the Barber of Seville. Or, if Disney is more to your taste, watch 1935’s The Band Concert, in which Mickey Mouse attempts to conduct the William Tell Overture. Unfortunately the work of illustrator and animator Emanuele Luzzati isn’t available on DVD, but on YouTube, you can find some of his work set to Rossini’s music, including one of the spurious Cat Duet. Luzzati won an Academy Award in 1965 for his animated short The Thieving Magpie, based on…guess what?

For background music, there are literally hundreds of works by other composers based on Rossini’s music. The most popular is probably La Boutique Fantasque, the ballet by Ottorino Respighi assembled from Rossini’s music. Paganini wrote variations for violin on several of Rossini’s arias, not long after they were first heard. Variations and paraphrases or fantasias of opera themes are the most frequently found re-workings of Rossini. Even Benjamin Britten couldn’t resist creating two orchestral suites based on Rossini melodies, entitled Soirées musicales and Matinées musicales.

If you would rather hear Rossini performed in unusual ways, there’s the Barber of Seville Overture on double basses ; La Danza performed by mandolin orchestra ; and an entire album of Rossini instrumental music sung by the group Die Singphoniker . And if you’re trying to get lingering guests to leave, try Mary Schneider yodeling La Danza or one of the overtures or find an antique IBM PC and type in the commands to hear it beep out the end of the William Tell Overture; it sounds something like this.

You can’t forget food for your party. Very important to Rossini. An anecdote relates that he only wept on three special occasions: when his first opera was a disaster, when he heard Paganini play violin, and when a truffle-stuffed turkey accidentally slipped overboard during a boating picnic outing. The aria “Di tanti palpiti” from Tancredi is sometimes called the “rice aria” because Rossini is said to have composed it while waiting for his risotto to cook. One of his closest friends was Marie Antoine (Antonin) Carême, the world’s first celebrity chef and the man who codified French haute cuisine. Dedicated web research will turn up recipes for — or at least references to — Salad Rossini, Chicken Rossini, Fillet of Sole alla Rossini, Cannelloni alla Rossini, and a Rossini cocktail (a variation of the Bellini cocktail, made with strawberries instead of peaches). Escoffier (the world’s second celebrity chef and creator of the Peach Melba, named after soprano Nellie Melba) created the very rich Tournedos Rossini, fillets of beef topped with foie gras, truffles, and a sweet wine glaze.

Now you should have everything you need to celebrate Rossini’s 54th birthday in style. Have fun!