The Barber of Seville opera at the Teatro Argentina in Rome was a disaster: the audience hissed and jeered throughout, and several on-stage accidents occurred. Furthermore, many of the audience were supporters of one of Rossini's rivals, Giovanni Paisiello, who played on mob mentality to provoke the rest of the audience to dislike the opera. Paisiello had already composed "The Barber of Seville" and took Rossini's new version to be an affront to his version. In particular, Paisiello and his followers were opposed to the use of basso buffo, which is common in comic opera. The second performance, however, was successful. The original French
The Barber of Seville (play) Guilty Mother". Though the play was poorly received at first, Beaumarchais worked some fast editing of the script, turning it into a roaring success after three days. The play's title might be a pun on Tirso de Molina's earlier play "El Burlador de Sevilla" ("The Trickster of Seville"). Mozart wrote a set of 12 variations, K.354, on one of Baudron's songs, "". The story follows a traditional Commedia dell'arte structure, with many characters seemingly based on famous stock characters. The plot involves a Spanish count, called simply The Count although "Almaviva" appears as an additional name (whether it is a