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 as successful as "Barbiere". The absence of a similar precaution in construction of his "Mosè in Egitto" led to disaster in the scene depicting the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, when the defects in stage contrivance always raised a laugh, so that the composer was at length compelled to introduce the chorus ""Dal tuo stellato soglio"" to divert attention from the dividing waves. In 1822, four years after the production of this work, Rossini married the renowned opera singer Isabella Colbran. In the same year, he moved from Italy to Vienna, where his operas were the