We went for our forty sous to the pit, in which, although the audience was standing, the company was excellent, for the opera was the favourite amusement of the Parisians.
After a symphony, very fine in its way and executed by an excellent orchestra, the curtain rises, and I see a beautiful scene representing the small St.Mark's Square in Venice, taken from the Island of St.
George, but I am shocked to see the ducal palace on my left, and the tall steeple on my right, that is to say the very reverse of reality.

I laugh at this ridiculous mistake, and Patu, to whom I say why I am laughing, cannot help joining me.

The music, very fine although in the ancient style, at first amused me on account of its novelty, but it soon wearied me.

The melopaeia fatigued me by its constant and tedious monotony, and by the shrieks given out of season.

That melopaeia, of the French replaces--at least they think so--the Greek melapaeia and our recitative which they dislike, but which they would admire if they understood Italian.
The action of the opera was limited to a day in the carnival, when the Venetians are in the habit of promenading masked in St.Mark's Square.
The stage was animated by gallants, procuresses, and women amusing themselves with all sorts of intrigues.