by Emily E. Hogstad , Interlude Nowadays, classical music audiences are usually pretty tame. The worst that happens at an average concert is that people glare at someone else for applauding at the wrong time. It wasn’t always this way, though. Today we’re looking at seven times when classical music audiences became unruly…and what upset them so much! 1. The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini Rossini’s The Barber of Seville 20 February 1816 in Rome Nowadays, we aren’t terribly familiar with composer Giovanni Paisiello, but back in the early nineteenth century, he was a respected rival of Gioachino Rossini. In 1782, Paisiello wrote an opera called Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). It was based on a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, which in turn was based on a book by famed creative Frenchman Pierre Beaumarchais. This opera turned out to be the biggest success of Paisiello’s entire career. In 1815, Gioachino Rossini also looked to Beaumarch...