During the spring of 1868 I was engaged in the fulfilment of a special mission that took me into several nooks of Tuscany and the Papal States...Throughout the winter, backed up by some small state or municipal subvention, the local lessee contrived to keep them open four nights in the week, with the aid of touring companies and migratory stars; and — although their stock orchestras, costumes and accessories were as a rule very marvels of weakness, decay and archaism — I found them almost invariably well-attended, by audiences...Not that they were rough upon the old-established shortcomings of the local executants, scenery and dresses, which they appeared to regard as inevitable evils, to be endured in silence and under gesticulatory protest of sardonic shrugs. They reserved their utmost severities for the vocal " strangers within their gates" — the "principals" in troupes engaged for half-a-dozen performances by an enterprising management, and "billed" all over the town as" the egregious tenor Malandrino," or "the inclyte first-lady Pette-gola."