rose

Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Paris


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TOC

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

of