Piccinni, after accepting the invitation to dispute the prize of popularity in Paris with Gluck, resolved to commence a new opera forthwith, and had no sooner reached the French capital than he asked one of the most distinguished authors of the day to furnish him with a libretto. Marmontel, to whom the request was made, gave him his Roland, which was the Roland of Quinault cut down from five acts to three. Unfortunately, Piccinni did not understand a word of French. Marmontel was therefore obliged to write beneath each French word its Italian equivalent, which caused it to be said that he was not only Piccinni's poet, but also his dictionary.
Gluck was in Germany when Piccinni arrived, and on hearing of the manœuvres of Madame du Barry and the Marquis Caraccioli to supplant him in the favour of the Parisian public, he fell into a violent passion, and wrote a furious letter on the subject, which was made public. Above all, he was enraged at the Academy having accepted from his adversary an opera on the subject of Roland, for he had agreed to compose an Orlando for them himself.
"Do you know that the Chevalier is coming back to us with an Armida and an Orlando in his portfolio?" said the Abbé Arnaud, one of Gluck's most fervent admirers.
"But Piccinni is also at work at an Orlando?" replied one of the Piccinnists.
"So much the better," returned the Abbé, "for then we shall have an Orlando and also an Orlandino."
Marmontel heard of this mot, which caused him to address some unpleasant observations to the Abbé the first time he met him in society.
But the Abbé was not to be silenced. One night, when Gluck's Alceste was being played, he happened to occupy the next seat to Marmontel. Alceste played by Mademoiselle Lesueur, has, at the end of the second act, to exclaim—
"Il me déchire le cœur."
"Ah, Mademoiselle," said the Academician quite aloud, "vous me déchirez les oreilles."
"What a fortunate thing for you, Sir," said the Abbé, "if you could get new ones."