which Beaumarchais's sparkling epigrammatic dialogue appears almost dull.[82] Paisiello's opera was a complete failure. And when Rossini's _Barbiere_ was brought out again, every one was struck by the contrast. It profited by the very artifice which was to have destroyed it, and Rossini's enemies took care for the future not to establish comparisons between Rossini and Paisiello. Madame Ronzi de Begnis, too, had been replaced very advantageously by Madame Fodor. With two such admirable singers as Fodor and Garcia in the parts of "Rosina" and "Almaviva," with Pellegrini as "Figaro," and Begnis as "Basil," the success of the opera increased with each representation: and though certain musical _quid-nuncs_ continued to shake their heads when Rossini's name was mentioned in a drawing-room, his reputation with the great body of the theatrical public was now fully established. The _tirana_ composed by Garcia _Se il mio nome saper voi bramate_, which he appears to have abandoned after the unfavourable manner in which it was received at Rome, was afterwards re-introduced into the _Barber_ by Rubini. The whole of the _Barber of Seville_ was composed from beginning to end in a month. _Ecco ridente il cielo_ (the air adapted from _Aureliano in Palmira_) was, as already mentioned, added after the first representation. The overture, moreover, had been previously written for _Aureliano in Palmira_, and (after the failure of that work) had been prefixed to _Elizabetta regina d'Inghilterra_ which met with some success, thanks to the admirable singing of Mademoiselle Colbran, in the principal character. * * * * * Rossini took his failures very easily, and with the calm confidence of a man who knew he could do better things and that the public would appreciate them. When his _Sigismondo_ was violently hissed at Venice he sent a letter to his mother with a picture of a large _fiasco_, (bottle). His _Torvaldo e Dorliska_, which was brought out soon afterwards, was also hissed, but not so much. [Sidenote: THE BARBER OF SEVILLE.] This time Rossini sent his mother a picture of a _fiaschetto_ (little bottle). * * * * * The motive of the _allegro_ in the trio of the last act of (to return for a moment to) the _Barber of Seville_, is, as most of my readers are probably aware, simply an arrangement of the bass air sung by "Simon," in _Haydn's Seasons_. The comic air, sung by "Berta," the duenna, is a Russian dance tune, which was very fashionable in Rome, in 1816. Rossini is said to have introduced it into the _Barber of Seville_, out of compliment to some Russian lady. * * * * *