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
Samuel Barber Heinsheimer, as an executive at G. Schirmer, would have been unlikely to have allowed Barber into the Schirmer offices to watch him "rip apart the music that his company had invested money in publishing". In 1943, Barber and Menotti purchased a house in Mount Kisco, New York. Barber won the Pulitzer Prize twice: in 1958 for his first opera "Vanessa," and in 1963 for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Barber spent many years in isolation after the harsh rejection of his third opera "Antony and Cleopatra". He suffered from depression, and was also beset by alcoholism. The opera was