"but, if
you do such a thing again, I will punish you in such a manner that you
will remember it as long as you live. Instead of studying the
principles of your art, you give yourself up to all the wildness of your
imagination; and, when you have tutored your ill-regulated ideas into
something like shape, you produce what you call a mass, and no doubt
think you have produced a masterpiece."

When the boy burst into tears at this rebuke, Leo clasped him in his
arms, told him he had great talent, and after that took him under
his special instruction. Leo was succeeded by Durante, who also loved
Piccini, and looked forward to a future greatness for him. He was wont
to say the others were his pupils, but Piccini was his son. After
twelve years spent in the conservatory, Piccini commenced an opera. The
director of the principal Neapolitan theatre said to Prince Vintimille,
who introduced the young musician, that his work was sure to be a
failure.

"How much can you lose by his opera," the prince replied, "supposing it
be a perfect fiasco?" The manager named the sum.

"There is the money, then," replied Piccini's generous patron, handing
him a purse. "If the 'Dorme Despetose' (the name of the opera) should
fail, you may keep the money, but otherwise return it to me."

The friends of Lagroscino, the favorite composer of the day, were
enraged when they heard that the next new work was to be from an obscure
youth, and they determined to hiss the performance. So great, however,
was the delight of the public with the freshness and beauty of Piccini's
music, that even those who came to condemn remained to applaud. The
reputation of the composer went on increasing until he became the
foremost name of musical Italy, for his fertility of production was
remarkable; and he gave the theatres a brilliant succession of comic and
serious works. In 1758 he produced at Rome his "Alessandro nell' Indie,"
whose success surpassed all that had preceded it, and two years later
a still finer masterpiece, "La Buona Figluola," written to a text
furnished by the poet Goldoni, and founded on the story of Richardson's
"Pamela." This opera was produced at every playhouse on the Italian
peninsula in the course of a few years. A pleasant _mot_ by the Duke of
Brunswick is worth preserving in this connection. Piccini had married a
beautiful singer named Vicenza Sibilla, and his home was very happy. One
day the German prince visited Piccini, and found him