Google has honored Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, born on 29 February 1792. As today is also a leap day, Google has associated the doodle with frogs, which are used to represent leap days and leap years.
One of Gioachino Rossini’s most famous works is the The Barber of Seville. He has been called the Italian Mozart. He is noted as one of the most popular opera composers in history. He learnt to play the violin and harpsichord at an early age. He wrote his first composition at the age of 12. He died on 13 November 1868 at the age of 77. He could only celebrate 19 birthdays on the actual day that he was born. His other famous works include La Cenerentola and the French-language epics Moïse et Pharaon and Guillaume Tell (William Tell).
The scene of the Google doodle shows frogs that seem to play out a scene from the Barber of Seville set in a forest. Another interesting detail is that there are four frogs too. The blonde frog, who represents Rosina, is shown to ‘leap’ into the air while singing a love song that is played on a piano by Count Almaviva. The frog getting his hair cut is Doctor Bartolo from the Barber of Seville, and the hero who is the barber frog is Figaro.
Google has stuck to its tradition and used the frogs to represent the leap year again, as it had done earlier on leap years in 2004,
The possibility of someone’s birthday falling on February 29 is 1 in 1461. There was no leap year in 2000.
The Google Doodle team consists of Marissa Mayer, Jenifer Hom, Dennis Hwang, Mike Dutton, and Susie Sahim. They have created over 300 doodles for Google.com in the United States. But over 700 doodles have been designed by the the general public, and submitted by guest doodlers and contest winners. You can also contribute and submit your own ideas to [email protected]
Happy Birthday Gioachino Rossini and Happy Leap Year everyone.