Fifty Marshals – but Only One Paisiello

The Italian composer Giovanni Paisiello was in the service of Empress Catherine II in Russia. At court he was the object of envy. One day, at a rehearsal of one of his operas, a field-marshal, seething with jealousy, hit him.

Paisiello lost his temper and struck back, giving the officer a beating. The marshal, still furious, rushed to the Empress with a complaint. He expected punishment for the insolent musician.

Catherine listened and then replied with icy common sense: ‘A marshal? Bah! I can make fifty marshals. But I cannot make one Paisiello.’