Lady Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake in Venice

from Letter from Lady Eastlake, 19 September 1852, page 326:

We hear only the splash of the gondolas, or the strange cries of the gondoliers; otherwise there is no sound in these watery streets. Music, however, we have had. At about ten o'clock one evening a gondola band of singers came nearer and nearer, singing enchantingly -- a perfect fleet of gondolas, almost invisible in their black shapes in the dark, following noiselessly. There was not a sign of a creature listening; yet, when the chorus on the waters ceased, a mysterious clapping began, with sundry `brai,' which is what the lazy Venetians say for `bravi.' The chorus-gondola passed and repassed…   more >>
cite as

Letter from Lady Eastlake, 19 September 1852. In Lady Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake, and Charles Eastlake Smith (ed.), Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake, p. 326. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1378312060 accessed: 29 March, 2024 (British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries 1500-1950)

location of experience: Venice

Listeners

Listening to

hide composers
vocal music

Experience Information

Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, in private, indoors

Originally submitted by hgb3 on Wed, 04 Sep 2013 17:27:40 +0100