treated the subject under its primitive title. Himself invited to
undertake this difficult task, the maestro Gioachino Rossini, in
order to avoid the reproach of entering rashly into rivalry with
the immortal author who preceded him, expressly required that 'The
Barber of Seville' should be entirely versified anew, and also
that new situations should be added for the musical pieces which,
moreover, are required by the modern theatrical taste, entirely
changed since the time when the renowned Paisiello wrote his work."

I have told the story of the fiasco made by Rossini's opera on its
first production at the Argentine Theatre on February 5, 1816, in an
extended preface to the vocal score of "Il Barbiere," published in
1900 by G. Schirmer, and a quotation from that preface will serve
here quite as well as a paraphrase; so I quote (with an avowal of
gratitude for the privilege to the publishers):--


Paisiello gave his consent to the use of the subject, believing that
the opera of his young rival would assuredly fail. At the same time
he wrote to a friend in Rome, asking him to do all in his power to
compass a fiasco for the opera. The young composer's enemies were
not sluggish. All the whistlers of Italy, says Castil-Blaze, seemed
to have made a rendezvous at the Teatro Argentina on the night set
down for the first production. Their malicious intentions were
helped along by accidents at the outset of the performance. Details
of the story have been preserved for us in an account written
by Signora Giorgi-Righetti, who sang the part of Rosina on the
memorable occasion. Garcia had persuaded Rossini to permit him to
sing a Spanish song to his own accompaniment on a guitar under
Rosina's balcony in the first act. It would provide the needed local