there without paying. So, most Italians (who if they go at all go without
ladies) and the poorer sort of government officials stand; the orchestra
seats are reserved for the officers of the garrison. The first row of
boxes, which is on a level with the heads of people in the pit, is well
enough, but rank and fashion take a loftier flight, and sit in the second
tier.

You look about in vain, however, for that old life of the theatre which
once formed so great a part of Venetian gayety,--the visits from box to
box, the gossiping between the acts, and the half-occult flirtations. The
people in the boxes are few, the dressing not splendid, and the beauty is
the blond, unfrequent beauty of the German aliens. Last winter being the
fourth season the Italians had defied the temptation of the opera, some of
the Venetian ladies yielded to it, but went plainly dressed, and sat far
back in boxes of the third tier, and when they issued forth after the
opera were veiled beyond recognition. The audience usually takes its
enjoyment quietly; hissing now and then for silence in the house, and
clapping hands for applause, without calling _bravo_,--an Italian
custom which I have noted to be chiefly habitual with foreigners: with
Germans, for instance; who spell it with a _p_ and _f_.

I fancy that to find good Italian opera you must seek it somewhere out of
Italy,--at London, or Paris, or New York,--though possibly it might be
chanced upon at La Scala in Milan, or San Carlo in Naples. The cause of
the decay of the musical art in Venice must be looked for among the events
which seem to have doomed her to decay in every thing; certainly it cannot
be discerned in any indifference of the people to music. The
_dimostrazione_ keeps the better class of citizens from the opera,
but the passion for it still exists in every order; and God's gift of
beautiful voice cannot be smothered in the race by any Situation. You hear