l society. He cannot be on good terms
with the basso,--they have too much similarity in their voices for that;
he is on no more friendly relations with the tenor for the same reason.
Besides never daring to aspire to the familiarity with the prima donna
which that worthy enjoys, he suffers under the affliction of conscious
diffidence in their presence.

[Illustration]

The barytone must as surely be the king as the basso must be the tyrant;
indeed we have often thought of the startling effect which would be
produced by an opera in which this law of nature was reversed. To hear
the lover growling his tender feelings in a gutteral E flat, and moaning
his hard lot in a series of double D.'s; to listen to the remorseless
tyrant ordering his myrmidons to "away with him to the deepest dungeon
'neath the castle moat," in the most soothing and mellifluous of tenor
head notes, would produce such a revulsion in operatic taste, as surely
to create a deep sensation, if nothing more.

CHAPTER VI.

Of the Suggeritore or Prompter.

"There never was a man so notoriously abused.

TWELFTH NIGHT.

"But whispering words can poison truth."

COLERIDGE.

[Illustration]

We should be much grieved were we to let a chance of immortality at our
hands go by, for our great friend the prompter--the suggeritore of the
Italians. The prompter is to the opera, what the fifth wheel is to a
wagon; everything rubs, grates and abrades it, yet the whole concern
turns on it. He is the most abused (not hated--that is reserved for the
Impresario,) man in the company. But he does not care for it. That is
what he is hired for. He is paid to be of a good temper, and he does it.
He returns docility for dollars; and suavity for salary. He is the true
philosopher; just enough in the company to be part of it, and
sufficiently detached to avoid all the squabbles and bickerings. He,
however, is the victim of all the caprices of the company, from the
prima donna, who in a miff kicks about _his partition_ in a very piano
cavatina, to each of the bandy-legged choristers. True, he has his
little revenge. This he accomplishes by using his voice too much and too
loudly in the _sotto voce_ parts, so that all the duos become trios and
the quintettes, choruses. This is little enough to sweeten the
embitterments of a _suggeritore's_ life, but such it is, and he is
contented. The _suggeritore_ must be a thin man. It does not require a
Paxton t