Among the most important composers of Italian opera in the later 18th century, Paisiello was trained principally in Naples, where he first established his reputation as a composer. In 1776 he was invited to move to St Petersburg, where he worked as a composer of opera and director of the court orchestra, winning the favour of the Empress Catherine II. In 1784 he was able to accept an invitation to return to Naples, where he enjoyed royal favour, only temporarily withdrawn after his acquiescence in the republican regime of 1799. He spent two years in Paris, from 1802 to 1804, as director of music for Napoleon. His employment in Naples continued under Ferdinand IV and then under the usurper Joseph Bonaparte and his successor Joachim Murat. The fi...