PAISIELLO, Giovanni (1740-1816). Italian composer.
Document Signed ('Cav^er Paisiello') on headed paper of the Società Reale di Napoli, to the Minister of the interior, 1 page folio, Naples, 28 August 1811. Written in Paisiello's capacity as Presidente della Reale Accademia di Belle Arti.

'Having upon your request examined a coloured sketch sent by you with your letter of the 24th of this month, depicting a weeping Artemis, executed by the painter Nicola Ferro, this academy has the honour of informing you that it is not considered worthy to be rendered in a larger size, as the author of the picture itself had requested.'

After a lifetime of prolific activity, mainly in Naples, as a composer of operas, Paisiello spent the years 1802-4 as Napoleon's maître de chapelle in Paris, where he composed sacred music and a single opera. After his return to Naples he received many royal and court appointments and was given the rank of Cavaliere in 1808.
He is now chiefly remembered as the composer of Il Barbiere di Siviglia (in 1782, 33 years before Rossini, and so popular that it initially prejudiced the public against Rossini's setting) and for Puccini's pastiche on his music in the second act of Tosca.
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