February 29, 2012 - 10:48 AMT
Google doodles leap year, Rossini’s 220th birthday

For February 29, Google doodles two-in-one event that commemorates the leap day and the 220th birth anniversary of the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini.

As the leap years are usually associated with frogs, the leaping amphibians, the doodle shows some frogs, each doing something related to the Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. One of the frogs is at the piano, another is a leaping soprano, the next frog is the barber, Figaro, and the frog getting the shave is Almaviva.

Born of February 29, 1792, Rossini was an Italian composer nicknamed 'the Italian Mozart' because of his sincere devotion to him.

Rossini's other famous operas include William Tell (1829), Semiramide (1823) and Cinderella (1817).

The composer had been suffering from mental and physical ailments before his death on November 13, 1868.