Charles Burney

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

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Paris

of the songs would have been admirable
too, if they had been sung with the true
Italian expression. But the French voice
never comes further than from the throat;
there is no voce di petto, no true porta-
mento, or direction of the voice, on any of
the stages. The new piece had several
movements in it very like what is heard
at the serious opera. It must be re-
membered that the whole was in verse,
and extremely serious, except some at-
tempt at humour in * Calliot's part,
which, however, did not prevent the
audience from pronouncing it to be
detestable.

Thursday 14. This being Fête Dieu,
or Corpus Christi Day, one of the greatest
holidays in the year, I went to see the
processions, and to hear high mass per-