Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/187

Rh orchestration; he contributed in no small degree to the revolution which was brought about in his time in Neapolitan opera, in which the orchestra began to rage and roar to the detriment of the singers, who were compelled to shout. "As for the music," says Burney, "all the chiaroscuro is lost; the half-shades and the background disappear; one hears only the noisy parts."

Venice was distinguished from Naples by the delicacy of its taste. In place of the Neapolitan conservatoires it had its famous conservatoires for women; the Pietà, the Mendicanti, the Incurabili and the Ospedaletto di S. Giovanni e Paolo.

These were hospitals for foundlings, under the patronage of the leading aristocratic families of the city. Young girls were kept there until their marriage, and were given a thorough musical education. "Music" says Grosley, "was the principal part of an education which seemed more adapted to form Laïs and Aspasias than nuns or mothers of families." But it must not be supposed that all were musicians. At the Pietà barely seventy out of a thousand were such; in each of the other hospitals forty to fifty. But nothing was left undone to attract musical pupils thither; and it was a common practice to admit children who were not orphans provided they had fine voices. They were brought thither from all Venetia: from Padua, Verona, Brescia and Ferrara. The professors were: at the Pietà: Furlanetto; at the Mendicanti, Bertoni; at the Ospedaletto, Sacchini; at the Incurabili, Galuppi, who followed Hasse. The rivalry that existed between these illustrious composers excited