Dear ----,--Signor Sonsogni, the promoter of music and art, gave
several librettos of operas to different composers in Italy, and
promised a large reward to the victorious competitor.
Signor Crispi kindly offered me his _loge_, thinking that it would
interest me to be present at one of the performances. There had been
many of these before, but nothing remarkable had so far been produced.
We arrived in the theater while they were playing a short opera of two
acts, which was unfavorably received and quickly condemned with
contempt and hisses.
The judges looked bored to death and discouraged, and the audience
seemed ready to growl and grumble at anything.
Mugnoni led the orchestra in his usual excitable manner. If any of the
operas had been good for anything they would have shown at their best
under his masterful baton.