io had been used by different musicians without scruple.
Paisiello intrigued against the new opera, and organized a conspiracy to
kill it on the first night. Sterbini made the libretto totally different
from the other, and Rossini finished the music in thirteen days, during
which he never left the house. "Not even did I get shaved," he said to a
friend. "It seems strange that through the 'Barber' you should have gone
without shaving." "If I had shaved," Rossini explained, "I should have
gone out; and, if I had gone out, I should not have come back in time."

The first performance was a curious scene. The Argentina Theatre was
packed with friends and foes. One of the greatest of tenors, Garcia, the
father of Malibran and Pauline Viardot, sang Almaviva. Rossini had been
weak enough to allow Garcia to sing a Spanish melody for a serenade, for
the latter urged the necessity of vivid national and local color. The
tenor had forgotten to tune his guitar, and in the operation on the
stage a string broke. This gave the signal for a tumult of ironical
laughter and hisses. The same hostile atmosphere continued during the
evening. Even Madame Georgi-Righetti, a great favorite of the Romans,
was coldly received by the audience. In short, the opera seemed likely
to be damned.

When the singers went to condole with Rossini, they found him enjoying a
luxurious supper with the gusto of the _gourmet_ that he was. Settled
in his knowledge that he had written a masterpiece, he could not be
disturbed by unjust clamor. The next night the fickle Romans made ample
amends, for the opera was concluded amid the warmest applause, even from
the friends of Paisiello.

Rossini's "Il Barbiere," within six months, was performed on nearly
every stage in Europe, and received universally with great admiration.
It was only in Paris, two years afterward, that there was some coldness
in its reception. Every one said that after Paisiello's music on the
same subject it was nothing, when it was suggested that Paisiello's
should be revived. So the St. Petersburg "Barbiere" of 1788 was
produced, and beside Rossini's it proved so dull, stupid, and antiquated
that the public instantly recognized the beauties of the work which they
had persuaded themselves to ignore. Yet for this work, which placed the
reputation of the young composer on a lofty pedestal, he received only
two thousand francs.

Our composer took his failures with great phlegm and good nature, base