at his post.



CHAPTER V.

OPERA AND THEATRES.


With the winter came to an end the amusement which, in spite of the
existing political demonstration, I had drawn from the theatres. The
Fenice, the great theatre of the city, being the property of private
persons, has not been opened since the discontents of the Venetians were
intensified in 1859; and it will not be opened, they say, till Victor
Emanuel comes to honor the ceremony. Though not large, and certainly not
so magnificent as the Venetians think, the Fenice is a superb and tasteful
theatre. The best opera was formerly given in it, and now that it is
closed, the musical drama, of course, suffers. The Italians seldom go to
it, and as there is not a sufficient number of foreign residents to
support it in good style, the opera commonly conforms to the character of
the theatre San Benedetto, in which it is given, and is second-rate. It is
nearly always subsidized by the city to the amount of several thousand
florins; but nobody need fall into the error, on this account, of
supposing that it is cheap to the opera-goer, as it is in the little
German cities. A box does not cost a great deal; but as the theatre is
carried on in Italy by two different managements,--one of which receives
the money for the boxes and seats, and the other the fee of admission to
the theatre,--there is always the demand of the latter to be satisfied
with nearly the same outlay as that for the box, before you can reach your
place. The pit is fitted up with seats, of course, but you do not sit down