d,
perhaps, on an invincible self-confidence. When his "Sigismonde" had
been hissed at Venice, he sent his mother a _fiasco_ (bottle). In
the last instance he sent her, on the morning succeeding the first
performance, a letter with a picture of a _fiaschetto_ (little bottle).

III.

The same year (1816) was produced at Naples the opera of "Otello," which
was an important point of departure in the reforms introduced by Rossini
on the Italian stage. Before speaking further of this composer's career,
it is necessary to admit that every valuable change furthered by him had
already been inaugurated by Mozart, a musical genius so great that he
seems to have included all that went before, all that succeeded him. It
was not merely that Rossini enriched the orchestration to such a degree,
but, revolting from the delay of the dramatic movement, caused by
the great number of arias written for each character, he gave large
prominence to the concerted pieces, and used them where monologue had
formerly been the rule. He developed the basso and baritone parts,
giving them marked importance in serious opera, and worked out the
choruses and finales with the most elaborate finish.

Lord Mount Edgcumbe, a celebrated connoisseur and admirer of the old
school, wrote of these innovations, ignoring the fact that Mozart had
given the weight of his great authority to them before the daring young
Italian composer:

"The construction of these newly-invented pieces is essentially
different from the old. The dialogue, which used to be carried on in
recitative, and which, in Metastasio's operas, is often so beautiful
and interesting, and now cut up (and rendered unintelligible if it
were worth listening to) into _pezzi concertati_, or long singing
conversations, which present a tedious succession of unconnected,
ever-changing motives, having nothing to do with each other; and if a
satisfactory air is for a moment introduced, which the ear would like
to dwell upon, to hear modulated, varied, and again returned to, it is
broken off, before it is well understood, by a sudden transition in an
entirely different melody, time, and key, and recurs no more, so that
no impression can be made, or recollection of it preserved. Single songs
are almost exploded.... Even the _prima donna_, who formerly would have
complained at having less than three or four airs allotted to her, is
now satisfied with having one single _cavatina_ given to her during the
who