Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/190

178 principal organs, and four lesser orchestras distributed, in twos, between the aisles, each group being supported by two small organs. This was in the Venetian tradition: it dated from the Gabrieli, from the sixteenth century.

Apart from the conservatoires and the churches, numerous concerts or "academies" were held in private houses. In these the nobility took part. Noble ladies performed on the harpsichord, playing concertos. Sometimes festivals were organised in honour of a musician: Burney was present at a "Marcello" concert. These musical "evenings" were often prolonged far into the night. Burney records that four conservatoire concerts and several private "academies" were held on the same evening.

The concerts did no harm to the theatres, which in Venice as in Naples constituted the city's chief title to musical fame. For a long time they were the foremost theatres of Italy.

At the Carnival of 1769, seven opera-houses were open simultaneously; three giving "serious" opera (opera seria) and four comic opera (opera buffa), without speaking of four theatres producing comedy; all were full, night after night.

A last detail gives evidence of the liberality and the truly democratic spirit that inspired these Italian cities. The gondoliers enjoyed free admission to the theatre; and "when a box belonging to a noble family was not occupied the director of the opera allowed the gondoliers to instal themselves therein." Burney sees here, correctly enough, one of the reasons of "the distinguished manner in which the men of the people sing in Venice as compared with men of the same class elsewhere." Nowhere was there