Giovanni Paisiello

Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer and teacher, born on May 9, 1740, in Rocca Forzata near Taranto. Celebrated as a master of comic opera, he played an important role in shaping the musical style of Mozart and Rossini. His early musical education began at a Jesuit school in Taranto, and from 1754 to 1763 he studied at the Conservatory of Sant’Onofrio a Capuana in Naples, where one of his major teachers was Francesco Durante.

Paisiello achieved his first major success with the opera buffa “Il Ciarlone,” performed in Bologna in 1764. This triumph encouraged him to continue composing primarily in the comic genre, and after settling in Naples in 1766, his operas gained great acclaim across Italy. Works such as “The Chinese Idol” (1766), “Don Chisciotte della Mancia” (1769), “Artaxerxes” (1771), “Alessandro nelle Indie” (1773), and “Andromeda” (1774) established him as one of the leading opera composers of his time, attracting commissions from major cultural centers including Milan, Venice, and Modena.

By the mid-1770s, Paisiello’s fame extended well beyond Italy, and in 1776 he was invited by Catherine the Great to Saint Petersburg, where he became court composer and one of the most influential Italian musicians to work in Russia. During his time in Saint Petersburg, which lasted until 1784, he composed at least ten operas and intermezzos. Notable works from this period include “Nitteti” (1777), “La Serva Padrona” (1781), and his famous setting of “The Barber of Seville” (1782). His operas were performed both at the imperial court and in public theaters, including the Free (Small) Theatre on Tsaritsyn Meadow.

In addition to his theatrical works, Paisiello wrote music for court festivities, including wind divertimenti, and provided musical instruction to Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. In 1782 he published a pedagogical treatise, “Rules for Playing Partimento Well,” which codified the Neapolitan tradition of realizing figured bass according to typical tonal models. He also took part in the court’s sacred concerts, composing works such as the “Passion of Jesus Christ” (1783) on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio.

After returning to Italy in 1784, Paisiello became court Kapellmeister and composer to the King of Naples. That same year he achieved recognition in Vienna with the opera “Il re Teodoro in Venezia.” During this period his output expanded to include both opera buffa and opera seria, with important works such as “Antigono” (1785), “Phaedra” (1788), “Didone abbandonata” (1794), and “Andromaca” (1797). His reputation made him one of the most sought‑after composers in Europe.

The political upheavals of 1799 profoundly affected his life when French forces and Italian revolutionaries established the Parthenopean Republic. Paisiello was appointed director of national music, but after the fall of the Republic he was dismissed by the restored king and accused of treason. Napoleon Bonaparte, however, admired Paisiello and invited him to Paris in 1802. There he composed the opera “Proserpine” (1803), written in the tradition of Italian opera seria, though it was not well received by the Parisian public. He also wrote a Mass and a Te Deum for Napoleon’s coronation in 1804.

Paisiello returned to Naples in 1804, and in 1807 he became head of the newly founded Royal Music Lyceum. His final opera, “I Pittagorici,” was completed in 1808. Over the course of his prolific career he composed more than one hundred operas. While his opera seria adhered largely to the older Italian tradition, his comic operas were innovative, rich in characterization, contrast, and satirical elements. Works such as “La Molinara” (1789) and “Nina, or The Woman Driven Mad by Love” (1789) are considered among the finest comic and sentimental operas of the eighteenth century.

During his early career Paisiello wrote several intermezzi for the conservatory theatre, including one that gained enough attention to earn him commissions for the operas “La Pupilla,” “Il Mondo al Rovescio,” and “Il Marchese di Tidipano.” In 1772 he began composing church music, producing a requiem for Gennara di Borbone. In the same year he married Cecilia Pallini after a much‑discussed dispute that briefly led to his arrest.

Paisiello met the young Mozart in Bologna in 1771, and the two were reunited in Vienna in 1784, where Mozart arranged a performance specifically so Paisiello could hear his newest works. His music later inspired Beethoven and Paganini, who both wrote variations on “Nel cor più non mi sento” from “La Molinara,” while “Chi vuol la zingarella” from “I zingari in fiera” became one of his most beloved vocal pieces.

Paisiello won Napoleon’s favor earlier by composing a march for the funeral of General Hoche, and in Paris he received a generous stipend for directing music at the Tuileries. After returning to Naples, he was reinstated in his former posts by Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat. In 1810 he was elected to the French Academy. The death of his wife in 1815 greatly affected him, and his own health soon declined.

His legacy extended beyond opera: he composed the national anthem “Inno al Re” for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and left a substantial body of church music, instrumental works, and songs. Manuscript scores of many of his operas were later donated to the British Museum, and the Library of the Gerolamini in Naples preserves a manuscript collection of his critical opinions on contemporary composers.

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