The Chaussee
Is Broad And Admirably Well Kept Up And Lined On Both Sides With Poplars.
The Roads In Lombardy Are Certainly The Finest In Europe.
I entered Milan
by the gate which leads direct to the esplanade between the citadel and the
city, and drove to the Pension Suisse, which is in a street close to the
Cathedral and Ducal palace.
MILAN, 12 October.
I am just returned from the Teatro della Scala, renowned for its immense
size: it certainly is the most stupendous theatre I ever beheld and even
surpassed the expectation I had formed of it, so much so that I remained
for some minutes lost in astonishment. I was much struck with the
magnificence of the scenery and decorations. An Opera and Ballo are
given every night, and the same are repeated for a month, when they are
replaced by new ones. The boxes are all hired by the year by the different
noble and opulent families, and in the Parterre the price is only thirty
soldi or sous, about fifteen pence English, for which you are fully as well
regaled as at the Grand Opera at Paris for three and a half francs and
far better than at the Italian theatre in London for half a guinea. The
opera I saw represented is called L'Italiana in Algieri, opera buffa, by
Rossini.
The Ballo was one of the most magnificent spectacles I ever beheld. The
scenery and decorations are of the first class and superior even to those
of the Grand Opera at Paris. The Ballo was called Il Cavaliere del
Tempio. The story is taken from an occurrence that formed an episode in
the history of the Crusades and which has already furnished to Walter Scott
the subject of a very pleasing ballad entitled the Fire-King, or Count
Albert and Fair Rosalie. Battles of foot and horse with real horses,
Christians and Moslems, dancing, incantations, excellent and very
appropriate music leave nothing to be desired to the ravished spectator. In
the Ballo all is done in pantomime and the acting is perfect. The
Italians seem to inherit from their ancestors the faculty of representing
by dumb show the emotions of the mind as well as the gestures of the body,
and in this they excel all other modern nations. The dancing is not quite
so good as what one sees at the Paris theatre, and besides that sort of
dancing they are very fond in Italy of grotesque dances which appear to me
to be mere tours de force. But the decorations are magnificent, and the
cost must be great.
It was a fine moonlight night on my return from the Scala, which gave a
very pleasing effect to the Duomo or Cathedral as I passed by it. The
innumerable aiguilles or spires of the most exquisite and delicate
workmanship, tapering and terminating in points all newly whitened, gave
such an appearance of airiness and lightness to this beautiful building
that it looked more visionary than substantial, and as if a strong puff of
wind would blow it away.
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