, was now no longer an Absurdity, when it was impossible for a Hero in a Desart, or a Princess in her Closet, to speak anything unaccompanied with Musical Instruments.
But however this
Italian
method of acting in
Recitativo
might appear at first hearing, I cannot but think it much more just than that which prevailed in our
English
Opera before this Innovation: The Transition from an Air to Recitative Musick being more natural than the passing from a Song to plain and ordinary Speaking, which was the common Method in
Purcell's
Operas.