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TOC
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was condemned in all the English forms, except breaking the benches and the actors heads, and the incessant sound of hish, instead of hiss.
The author of the words, luckily, or rather judiciously, lay concealed; but the composer, M. de St. Amant, was very much to be pitied, for a great deal of pretty music was thrown away upon bad words, and upon an audience not at all disposed, especially in the two last acts (there were three) to hear any thing fairly. But this music, though I thought it much superior to the poetry it accompanied, was not without its defects; the modulation was too studied, so much so as to be unna- tural, and always to disappoint the ear. The overture however was good music, full of elegant and pleasing melody, with many passages of effect.
The hautbois at this theatre is admir- able; I hardly ever heard a more pleas- ing tone or manner of playing. Several
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