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 became the court composer at St. Petersburgh,
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 afterward 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 favorite of the
Russian Messalina, her favor 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 favor by giving him the preference over Cherubim in several
important musical contests, for the latter had always displayed stern
independence of courtly favor. 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 honors 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 characterized 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 pretense 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, clarinet, 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 favorites,
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.