In Italian "commedia dell'arte" there was already a tradition of depicting misers as the Pantaleone figure, who was represented as a rich and avaricious Venetian merchant. However, Molière's play was eventually adapted to opera. Giovanni Bertati's libretto based on the play was set by Pasquale Anfossi as "L'avaro" in 1775 and in 1776 it was set again by Gennaro Astarita. Giuseppe Palomba also wrote a libretto based on the work which was set by Giacomo Cordella in 1814. In Russia, too, Vasily Pashkevich based his 18th century comic opera "The Miser" on Molière's play. Another musical adaptation in Arabic was pioneered by the Lebanese Marun al-Naqqash (1817–55) as "al-Bakhil". This was performed in Beirut in 1847.