Marie Antoinette, whose faction in music, among other names, was known
as the Greek party, "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes." *

* I fear the Greeks, though offering gifts.

Beaumarchais, the brilliant author of "Figaro," had found the same
inconvenience when acting as court teacher to the daughters of Louis XV.
The French kings were parsimonious except when lavishing money on their
vices.

The action of the dauphiness, however, paved the way for a
reconciliation between Piccini and Gluck. Berton, the manager of the
opera, gave a luxurious banquet, and the musicians, side by side,
pledged each other in libations of champagne. Gluck got confidential
in his cups. "These French," he said, "are good enough people, but they
make me laugh. They want us to write songs for them, and they can't
sing." In fact the quarrel was not between the musicians but their
adherents. In his own heart Piccini knew his inferiority to Gluck.

De Vismes, Berton's successor, proposed that both should write operas on
the same subject, "Iphigenia in Tauris," and gave him a libretto. "The
French public will have for the first time," he said, "the pleasure of
hearing two operas on the same theme, with the same incidents, the
same characters, but composed by two great masters of totally different
schools."

"But," objected the alarmed Italian, "if Gluck's opera is played first,
the public will be so delighted that they will not listen to mine."

"To avoid that catastrophe," said the director, "we will play yours