Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/207

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The same writer, ravished by hearing a famous singer in Naples—il Senesino—"perceived with astonishment that the people of the country were by no means satisfied. They complained that he sang in a stile antico. You must understand that the taste in music changes here at least every ten years."

Burney is still more positive:

" In Italy they treat an opera already heard like a last year's almanack. … There is a rage for novelty; it has sometimes been the cause of the revolutions which one observes in Italian music; it often gives rise to strange concetti. It leads composers to seek novelty at any cost. The simplicity of the