The sentiment of this was probably applauded by the many who were
wearied of the bitter recriminations, which degraded the art which they
professed to serve.

During the period when Gluck and Piccini were composing for the French
opera, its affairs flourished liberally under the sway of De Vismes.
Gluck, Piccini, and Rameau wrote serious operas, while Piccini,
Sacchini, Anfossi, and Paisiello composed comic operas. The ballet
flourished with unsurpassed splendor, and on the whole it may be said
that never has the opera presented more magnificence at Paris than
during the time France was on the eve of the Reign of Terror. The
gay capital was thronged with great singers, the traditions of whose
artistic ability compare favorably with those of a more recent period.

The witty and beautiful Sophie Arnould, who had a train of princes at
her feet, was the principal exponent of Gluck's heroines, while Mile.
La-guerre was the mainstay of the Piccinists. The rival factions made
the names of these charming and capricious women their war-cries not
less than those of the composers. The public bowed and cringed before
these idols of the stage. Gaétan Vestris, the first of the family, known
as the "Dieu de la Danse," and who held that there were only three great
men in Europe, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Voltaire, and himself,
dared to dictate even to Gluck. "Write me the music of a chaconne,
Monsieur Gluek," said the god of dancing.

"A chaconne!" said the enraged composer. "Do you think the Greeks, whose
manners we are endeavoring to depict, knew what a chaconne was?"

"Did they not?" replied Vestris, astonished at this news, and in a tone