At the Venetian premiere in 1951 I had found it stale but was afraid to admit it. Everyone was saying, "Why do people call it a pastiche when it's pure Stravinsky? It is pastiche, and quite impure. A few very inspired tunes, but the libretto's overrefined with In-jokes and the prosody's burlesque. I left before the last act. (The babble of that international Venetian cast! Schwarzkopf's German accent, Tourel's Jewish accent, Roundsville's Broadway accent, Cuénod's nonaccent from Switzerland, and the Englisheries of dear Nell Tangeman's two or three hardworked lines.)