[ 73 ]
TOC
|
nery and decorations are magnificent. I
was carried into every part of it, even to
the taylor's work-shop. Here are six rows
of boxes above the pit, both larger and
deeper than those of the other theatre:
the king is at the chief expence of this
opera. Those who have boxes for the
season, pay, in a kind of fees only, two
or three guineas; money at the door
being only taken for sitting in the pit.
The itinerant musicians, Anglic, bal-
lad-singers, and fidlers, at Turin perform
in concert. A band of this kind came to
the H™tel, la bonne femme, where I lodged,
consisting of two voices, two violins, a
guitar, and base, bad enough indeed,
though far above our scrapers. The
singers, who were girls, sung duets very
well in tune, accompanied by the whole
band. The same people at night per-
formed on a stage in the grande place or
square, where they sold their ballads as
our quack doctors do their nostrums, but
with far less injury to society. In an-
|
.jpg)