Giovanni Paisiello

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Giovanni Paisiello Life

His father, a veterinary surgeon who acquired such fame in the practice that he was employed by the king of Napoli, entered his son into the Jesuit school where Giovanni remained for eight years.

There, his beautiful voice attracted notice.

One time Chevalier D. Girolanio Carducci asked him to sing from memory, which Paisiello did with such self-assurance that Carducci urged the boy's parents to send him to Napoli to continue music study under masters.

The parents, at first, refused adamantly to part from their only son.

But Carducci's entreaties finally won out.

When, therefore, Giovanni Paisiello had completed his preliminary music study under a priest, Don Carlo Presta, he went with his father to Napoli in 1754, entering the Conservatory of St. Onofrio as a pupil of Durante.

For nine years, Paisiello remained a student at the Conservatory, devoting special effort to the study of church music, and composing psalms, motets, and oratorios.

Towards the close of his student days, however, he composed a comic interlude which was performed at the Conservatory.

This piece attracted such attention that it procured for its composer a commission from Bologna to compose an opera.

In this way, Paisiello was brought to that field of music in which he won world renown.

Paisiello composed two comic operas for Bologna - La Pupilla and Il mondo a rovescio -which achieved such great fame that the composer received commissions to compose operas for leading opera houses in Italia.

His pen was productive; during the next few years he composed a long string of operas which spread his fame from one end of Italia to the other.
When he settled in Napoli, his fame rivalled that of Piccinni and Cimarosa, two of the most popular operatic composers of the time.

But his reputation was not confined to Italia alone.

In 1776, he received an invitation from Catherine II, to serve as her music-master, at a yearly salary of 4000 rubles, excluding expenses.

For nine years, Paisiello remained in the employ of Catherine.

This period was especially distinguished by the fact that it produced Il Barbiere di Siviglia, probably the best of Paisiello's operas and the first to utilize a subject which Rossini was later to make world famous.

On his way back to Italia, after his extended sojourn in Russia, Paisiello stopped at Wein, where he twelve symphonies upon an order from Joseph II, and an opera, Il Rè Teodoro.

Proceeding to Napoli, he was appointed chapel master to Ferdinando IV, in 1784.
In this post he produced some of his most famous operas, including Nina and La Molinara.

In 1799, the revolution in Napoli established a republican government, and the court withdrew to Sicilia.

Paisiello, however, did not lose his prominent musical post, immediately being appointed composer to the Nation.

With the Restoration, his former patrons refused to reinstate him.
For two years, therefore, Paisiello held no offical post.

Then, called to Paris by First Consul Napoleon to direct the music of his chapel, at a salary of 12.000 francs a year including expenses, Paisiello came to the français capital, remaining two and a half years in Napoleon's employ.

During this period, he composed considerable church music and an opera, Proserpine.
His music was esteemed highly by Napoleon, who considered Paisiello one of his favourite composers.

The ill-health of Paisiello's wife, brought on by the climate of Paris, compelled the composer to resign from his attractive position and to designate the then-unknown Leseuer as his successor.

Returning to Napoli, Paisiello found honour and fame awaiting him.

He was accorded a handsome pension by Joseph Buonaparte (of course, the brother of Napoleon) and reinstated in his one-time position as chapel master.

The return of the Bourbon family into power in Napoli however ended this good fortune.
Deprived of his pension, Paisiello was faced by comparative penury.

The loss of his high position affected Paisiello vitally, undermining his health.
The death of his beloved wife, in 1815, was the last blow.
Giovanni Paisiello died in Napoli on 5 June 1816.

The Operas of G. Paisiello