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 the rest of the score in 1841. The success of the work bears comparison with his achievements in opera, but his comparative silence during the period from 1832 to his death in 1868 makes his biography appear almost like the narrative of two lives—the life of swift triumph and the long life of seclusion, of which biographers give us pictures in stories of the composer's cynical wit, his speculations in fish mongering, his mask of humility and indifference. In 1839 Rossini was appointed director of the Liceo Musicale di Bologna where among his pupils was contralto Marietta Alboni. His first