Yet with all these dazzling allurements [of the French opera], it wearies and exhausts the attention of the spectator, while the Opera Seria of Italy recreates and delights him.

[…]

An Italian in witnessing the deafening applauses of a French audience, which were, however, not sufficiently loud to drown the voice of the actress upon the stage exclaimed "gli Francesi hanno le orecchie di corno". Those who have had their ears wounded by the screaming of Madame Branchu, in the character of Armide, and have seen Rinaldo roused from his voluptuous dream, by the stentorian voice of Derivis accompanied with all the cymbals, trumpets and kettle-drums of the orchestra, must have regretted, that any thing so offensive should mar the beauty of a performance.