Paisiello and Cimarosa, in their style and processes of work, seem to
have more nearly caught the mantle of Piccini than any others, though
they were contemporaries as well as successors. GIOVANNI PAISIELLO,
born in 1741, was educated, like many other great musicians, at the
Conservatory of San Onofrio. During his early life he produced a great
number of pieces for the Italian theatres, and in 1776 accepted the
invitation of Catherine to become the court composer at St.
Petersburg, where he remained nine years, and produced several of his
best operas, chief among them, "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" (a different
version of Beaumarchais's celebrated comedy from that afterwards used
by Rossini).
The empress was devotedly attached to him, and showed her esteem in
many signal ways. On one occasion, while Paisiello was accompanying
her in a song, she observed that he shuddered with the bitter cold. On
this Catherine took off her splendid ermine cloak, decorated with
clasps of brilliants, and threw it over her tutor's shoulders. In a
quarrel which Paisiello had with Marshal Beloseloky, the temporary
favourite of the Russian Messalina, her favour was shown in a still
more striking way. The marshal had given the musician a blow, on which
Paisiello, a very large, athletic man, drubbed the Russian general
most unmercifully. The latter demanded the immediate dismissal of the
composer for having insulted a dignitary of the empire. Catherine's
reply was similar to the one made by Francis the First of France in a
parallel case about Leonardo da Vinci--
"I neither can nor will attend to your request; you forgot your
dignity when you gave an unoffending man and a great artist a blow.
Are you surprised that he should have forgotten it too? As for rank,
it is in my power to make fifty marshals, but not one Paisiello."
Some years after his return to Italy, he was engaged by Napoleon as
chapel-master; for that despot ruled the art and literature of his
times as autocratically as their politics. Though Paisiello did not
wish to obey the mandate, to refuse was ruin. The French ruler had
already shown his favour by giving him the preference over Cherubini
in several important musical contests, for the latter had always
displayed stern independence of courtly favour. On Paisiello's arrival
in Paris, several lucrative appointments indicated the sincerity of
Napoleon's intentions. The composer did not hesitate to stand on his
rights as a musician on all occasions. When Napoleon complained of the
inefficiency of the chapel service, he said, courageously, "I can't
blame people for doing their duty carelessly, when they are not justly
paid." The cunning Italian knew how to flatter, though, when occasion
served. He once addressed his master as "Sire."
"'Sire,' what do you mean?" answered the first consul. "I am a general
and nothing more."
"Well, General," continued the composer, "I have come to place myself
at your majesty's orders."
"I must really beg you," rejoined Napoleon, "not to address me in this
manner."
"Forgive me, General," said Paisiello. "But I cannot give up the habit
I have contracted in addressing sovereigns, who, compared with you,
are but pigmies. However, I will not forget your commands, and, if I
have been unfortunate enough to offend, I must throw myself on your
majesty's indulgence."
Paisiello received ten thousand francs for the mass written for
Napoleon's coronation, and one thousand for all others. As he produced
masses with great rapidity, he could very well afford to neglect
operatic writing during this period. His masses were pasticcio work
made up of pieces selected from his operas and other compositions.
This could be easily done, for music is arbitrary in its associations.
Love songs of a passionate and sentimental cast were quickly made
religious by suitable words. Thus the same melody will depict equally
well the rage of a baffled conspirator, the jealousy of an injured
husband, the grief of lovers about to part, the despondency of a man
bent on suicide, the devotion of the nun, or the rapt adoration of
worship. A different text and a slight change in time effect the
marvel, and hardly a composer has disdained to borrow from one work to
enrich another. His only opera composed in Paris, "Proserpine," was
not successful.
Failure of health obliged Paisiello to return to Naples, when he again
entered the service of the king. Attached to the fortunes of the
Bonaparte family, his prosperity fell with theirs. He had been crowned
with honours by all the musical societies of the world, but his
pensions and emoluments ceased with the fall of Joachim Murat from the
Neapolitan throne. He died June 5, 1816, and the court, which
neglected him living, gave him a magnificent funeral.
"Paisiello," says the Chevalier Le Sueur, "was not only a great
musician, but possessed a large fund of general information. He was
well versed in the dead languages, acquainted with all branches of
literature, and on terms of friendship with the most distinguished
persons of the age. His mind was noble and above all mean passions; he
neither knew envy nor the feeling of rivalry.... He composed," says
the same writer, "seventy-eight operas, of which twenty-seven were
serious, and fifty-one comic, eight _intermezzi_, and an immense
number of cantatas, oratorios, masses, etc.; seven symphonies for King
Joseph of Spain, and many miscellaneous pieces for the court of
Russia."
Paisiello's style, according to Fétis, was characterised by great
simplicity and apparent facility. His few and unadorned notes, full of
grace, were yet deep and varied in their expression. In his simplicity
was the proof of his abundance. It was not necessary for him to have
recourse to musical artifice and complication to conceal poverty of
invention. His accompaniments were similar in character, clear and
picturesque, without pretence of elaboration. The latter not only
relieved and sustained the voice, but were full of original effects,
novel to his time. He was the author, too, of important improvements
in instrumental composition. He introduced the viola, clarionet, and
bassoon into the orchestra of the Italian opera. Though voluminous
both in serious and comic opera, it was in the latter that he won his
chief laurels. His "Pazza per Amore" was one of the great Pasta's
favourites, and Catalani added largely to her reputation in the part
of _La Frascatana_. Several of Paisiello's comic operas still keep a
dramatic place on the German stage, where excellence is not sacrificed
to novelty.