The Devil himself straight from Hell would not have received a worse reception.

Later on, as we know, _Carmen_ was received in the same way.
I was, indeed, able to do something beside work for the stage, and it was just that which closed the stage to me.

I was a writer of symphonies, an organist and a pianist, so how could I be capable of writing an opera! The qualities which go to make a pianist were in a particularly bad light in the greenroom.

Bizet played the piano admirably, but he never dared to play in public for fear of making his position worse.
I suggested to Carvalho that I write a _Macbeth_ for Madame Viardot.
Naturally enough he preferred to put on Verdi's _Macbeth_.

It was an utter failure and cost him thirty thousand francs.
They tried to interest a certain princess, a patron of the arts, in my behalf.