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Giovanni Paisiello was born in Taranto on 9 May 1741.
He 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 Italy.
In 1776, he received an invitation from Catherine II, to serve as her music-master.
The Musical Magazine and Review of 1818 describes Paisiello`s qualities as a composer: 'fertility of invention, an extraordinary and happy facility of finding subjects full of both nature and originality, a talent unique in developing them by the resources of melody, and embellishing them by interesting details, an arrangement always full of fancy and learning, a taste, grace and freshness of melody....His composition is always very simple, and divested of all affection of learning...exceedingly elegant; his accompaniments are always very clear and at the same time full of brilliant effect....He knows perfectly how to induce variety...to pass from the comic, from the simple and unaffected, to the pathetic, to the majestic, and even to the terrible without losing...grace and elegance.'
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