PAISIELLO, GIOVANNI

born May 9, 1740, Taranto, Kingdom of Naples died June 5, 1816, Naples Paisiello also spelled Paesiello Neapolitan composer of operas admired for their robust realism and dramatic power. Paisiello's father, who intended him for the legal profession, enrolled him at age five in the Jesuit school in Taranto. When his talent for singing became obvious, he was placed in the Conservatory of San Onofrio at Naples. Paisiello's earliest efforts in composition were for the church. For the theatre of the conservatory he wrote some intermezzi, one of which attracted so much notice that he was invited to write two operas, La Pupilla (The Female Pupil), for Bologna, and Il Marchese Tulipano, for Rome. His reputation established, he settled for some years at Naples, where he produced a series of successful operas. In 1776 Paisiello was invited by the Russian empress Catherine II to St. Petersburg, where he remained for eight years. Among the works he produced for Catherine was Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1782; The Barber of Seville), which some consider his masterpiece, on a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, after Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Sville. In 1784 Paisiello left Russia and, after a brief sojourn in Vienna, where he composed for Joseph II, entered the service of Ferdinand IV of Naples. During his 15 years as music director there, he composed several of his best operas, including La Molinara (1788) and Nina (1789). After many vicissitudes resulting from political and dynastic changes, he was invited to Paris in 1802 by Napoleon. Paisiello conducted the music of the court in the Tuileries; the Parisian public, however, received his opera Proserpine (1803) without enthusiasm. Disappointed at the failure of his only opera with a French libretto, he returned to Naples. There he was reinstated in his former appointment by Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat, but he was unable to meet the demands for new works. The power of the Bonaparte family was tottering, and Paisiello's fortunes fell with it. Paisiello is known to have composed about 100 operas. His church music comprises about 40 masses and many smaller works. His instrumental music includes symphonies, a harp concerto, string quartets, and sonatas for harp and for violin and cello. In the 20th century, Il Barbiere and La Molinara were revived, and several of his operas and piano concerti, string quartets, and keyboard pieces were republished.