Giovanni Paisiello

Giovanni Paisiello was born on 9 May 1740 in Italy, arriving at the height of the Classical era. Through the last decades of the 1700s he became the most popular opera composer alive, setting a standard that shaped the stage across Europe. His operatic style left marks on Mozart's work and later on Rossini's, both of whom wrote in his shadow or in answer to him. He died on 5 June 1816, decades after his peak but long enough to watch the next generation claim the form he'd dominated.