The Barber of Seville (Paisiello) The Barber of Seville (Paisiello) Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La precauzione inutile ("The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution") is a comic opera by Giovanni Paisiello from a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, even though his name is not identified on the score's title page. The opera was first performed on 26 September 1782 (old Russian calendar, 15 September) at the Imperial Court, Saint Petersburg. It was adapted from the play "Le Barbier de Séville" of Pierre Beaumarchais. The full title for the opera reads: ""Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La Precauzione inutile, dramma giocoso per musica tradotto liberamente
Gioachino Rossini was in many of its incidents an anticipation of those presented to the world a few years later in Sir Walter Scott's "Kenilworth". The opera was the first in which Rossini wrote out the ornaments of the arias instead of leaving them to the fancy of the singers, and also the first in which the "secco" recitative was replaced by a recitative accompanied by a string quartet. Rossini's most famous opera was produced on 20 February 1816, at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. The libretto, a version of Beaumarchais' stage play "Le Barbier de Séville", was newly written by Cesare