five or six a year. Stendhall, Rossini's spirited biographer, gives
a picturesque account of life in the Italian theatres at this time, a
status which remains in some of its features to-day:

"The mechanism is as follows: The manager is frequently one of the most
wealthy and considerable persons of the little town he inhabits. He
forms a company consisting of _prima donna, tenoro, basso cantante,
basso buffo_, a second female singer, and a third _basso_. The
_libretto_, or poem, purchased for sixty or eighty francs from some
lucky son of the muses, who is generally a half-starved abbé, the
hanger-on of some rich family in the neighborhood. The character of the
parasite, so admirably painted by Terence, is still to be found in all
its glory in Lombardy, where the smallest town can boast of some five or
six families of some wealth.

"A _maestro_, or composer, is then engaged to write a new opera, and
he is obliged to adapt his own airs to the voices and capacity of the
company. The manager intrusts the care of the financial department to
a _registrario_, who is generally some pettifogging attorney, who holds
the position of his steward. The next thing that generally happens is
that the manager falls in love with the _prima donna_; and the progress
of this important amour gives ample employment to the curiosity of the
gossips.

"The company thus organized at length gives its first representation,
after a month of cabals and intrigues, which furnish conversation for
the town. This is an event in the simple annals of the town, of the
importance of which the residents of large places can form no idea.
During months together a population of eight or ten thousand people do
nothing but discuss the merit of the forthcoming music and singers