Charles Burney

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

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Milan

about the galleries. There was only one
dance, but that very long.

It is not the English genius to be
satisfied with their present condition
or possessions, or else, upon the whole,
one may venture to pronounce, that such
a comic opera as that of last winter in
London, might have contented them;
which, on the side of singing, was great-
ly superior to this; nor did I meet,
throughout Italy, with three such per-
formers, at least on the same stage, as
Signor Lovatini, Signor Morigi, and
Signora Guadagni.

The opera here is carried on by thirty
noblemen, who subscribe sixty sequins
each, for which every subscriber has a
box *; the rest of the boxes are let for
the year at fifty sequins la prima fila, or
first row, forty the second, thirty
the third, and in proportion for the rest. The