By 1764, Giovanni Paisiello had settled in Naples and began building his reputation with a stream of commedie per musica and other stage works that helped define late-18th-century Neapolitan opera buffa practice.
Paisiello’s comic opera L’idolo cinese (libretto by Giovanni Battista Lorenzi) premiered at Naples’ Teatro Nuovo in spring 1767, a key early success linking Paisiello to the city’s principal opera buffa circuit.
During Carnival 1772, Domenico Cimarosa’s first opera, Le stravaganze del conte, was staged at Naples’ Teatro dei Fiorentini, marking his entry into the professional world of Neapolitan comic opera.
Between 1773 and 1779, the Teatro dei Fiorentini underwent restoration and expansion, reflecting sustained demand for comic opera and the theater’s importance in Naples’ competitive theatrical economy.
In 1776, Paisiello was invited by Empress Catherine II to St. Petersburg, beginning an extended court appointment that enhanced his international stature while keeping Neapolitan opera buffa aesthetics in circulation abroad.
In 1777, Cimarosa composed Il fanatico per gli antichi Romani for the Teatro dei Fiorentini, underscoring the theater’s continuing role as a launchpad for Neapolitan opera buffa and its leading composers.
Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia premiered for the imperial court at St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Theatre on 26 September 1782, becoming one of the era’s most widely admired opera buffa settings of Beaumarchais.
After leaving Russia in 1784, Paisiello entered the service of Ferdinand IV of Naples, positioning him at the center of Neapolitan theatrical and court life during a crucial phase of late Classical opera buffa.
In 1787, Cimarosa received the post of maestro di cappella to Catherine the Great in St. Petersburg, extending Neapolitan-trained comic-opera craftsmanship into an influential international court setting.
On 29 October 1787, Paisiello was appointed maestro della Real Camera, placing him in charge of secular music at court—an institutional foundation that intersected with Naples’ major theaters, including San Carlo and the comic venues.
Paisiello’s comedy L’amor contrastato—widely known as La molinara—was first staged at Naples’ Teatro dei Fiorentini in autumn 1788, becoming one of his most durable comic successes.
Commissioned for the Russian court, Cimarosa’s La Cleopatra premiered at St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Theatre on 7 February 1789, illustrating how Italian composers (including those shaped by Naples’ comic stage) navigated elite court production systems.
Opera Buffa in Naples — Paisiello, Cimarosa, and the Neapolitan Theaters (1760–1790)
