"Are you satisfied? I am so much."
We had a famous tenor of the time, Signor Fanselli. He had a superb voice, but a mannerism of spreading his arms wide open in front of him with his fingers opened out. In spite of the fact that an excessive fondness for this method of giving expression is almost inevitably displeasing, many other artists I have known use it to express their feelings, at least they think they do, when, as a matter of fact, they feel absolutely nothing.
His open hands had won for this remarkable tenor the nickname, Cinque e cinque fanno dieci! (Five and five make ten!)
Apropos of this first performance I will mention the baritone Mendioroz and Signorina Mecocci who took part in it.
Such goings about became very frequent, for scarcely had Hartmann and I got back to Paris than we had to start off again for Rome where Il Re di Lahore had the honor of a first performance on March 21, 1879.
Here I had still more remarkable artists: the tenor Barbaccini, the baritone Kashmann, both singers of great merit; then Signorina Mariani, an admirable singer and tragedienne, and her younger sister who was equally charming. M. Giacovacci, the director at the Apollo, was a strange old fellow, very amusing and gay, especially when he recalled the first performance of The Barber of Seville at the Argentine Theater in the days of his youth. He drew a most interesting picture of the young Rossini and his vivacity and charm. To have written The Barber of Seville and William Tell is indeed a most striking evidence of wit personified and also of a keen mind.
I profited by my stay in Rome to revisit my dear Villa Medici. It amused me to reappear there as an author ... how shall I say it? Well (and so much the worse) let us say, an enthusiastically applauded author.
I stopped at the Hotel de Rome, opposite the San Carlo, on the Corso.
The morning after the first performance, they brought a note to my rooms—I was hardly awake, for we had come in very late—which bore these words:
"The next time you stay at a hotel, let me know beforehand, for I haven't slept all night with all their serenading and toasting you! What a row! But I am pleased for your sake.