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 (1904 film) The Barber of Seville (1904 film) The Barber of Seville (), also released as The Barber of Sevilla, or the Useless Precaution, was a 1904 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès, based on the play of the same name by Pierre Beaumarchais. It was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 606–625 in its catalogues, where it was advertised as a "comédie burlesque en 7 actes, d'après Beaumarchais". Like several other of Méliès's longer films, two versions were released simultaneously: a complete 22-minute print and an abridged print. As with his 1904 film "Faust and Marguerite", Méliès