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Paisiello

Giovanni Paisiello (1740–1816) was an Italian composer who studied in Naples and became one of the most celebrated opera composers of the Classical era, his Il barbiere di Siviglia considered the definitive setting of Beaumarchais's play. He spent eight years at the court of Catherine the Great in St Petersburg, enjoyed the patronage of Napoleon, and returned to Naples as the dominant figure in Italian opera. When Rossini's own Barber of Seville premiered in 1816, Paisiello's supporters, with his encouragement it is said, booed it from the theatre. Rossini's version is now the most performed opera in history. Paisiello died the same year.

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