Buffalo Bill laughed. "No, you must guess again. It was called Saint Peter's."
"Poor little girl!" said the kind-hearted Duke, and put a gold piece in the ready and delighted hand of the mother.
ROME, 1890.
Dear ____,—Signor Sonsogni, the promoter of music and art, gave several librettos of operas to different composers in Italy, and promised a large reward to the victorious competitor.
Signor Crispi kindly offered me his loge, thinking that it would interest me to be present at one of the performances. There had been many of these before, but nothing remarkable had so far been produced.
We arrived in the theater while they were playing a short opera of two acts, which was unfavorably received and quickly condemned with contempt and hisses.
The judges looked bored to death and discouraged, and the audience seemed ready to growl and grumble at anything.
Mugnoni led the orchestra in his usual excitable manner. If any of the operas had been good for anything they would have shown at their best under his masterful baton.
Then came the "Cavalleria Rusticana."
Already when the overture was played the audience was enchanted, and as it progressed the enthusiasm became greater and greater, the excited audience called for the autore (author).