To give the composer spirits to go through the impending display of his musical talents, I called for a bottle of Lagrima Christi. […] Thus well refreshed, I reconducted my guests, together with Monsieur B. to Don Matteo's quarters. 

[…]

 That the composer would not take the field before he had tuned his old rattling piano-forte, you will imagine of course; the poor creatura […] partook of the tuning operation, by means of a paternal application, which forthwith produced a flebile in chromatic ascent, followed by a sentence of banishment to the next room. When the instrument was adjusted, Don Matteo proposed treating us with some other composition of his, before he entered upon the execution of the cantata, which, as his chef d'œuvre, he wished to reserve for the last. He therefore produced an opera of his composition, entitled Guglielmo Tell […] Finding I paid attention to the overture, Don Matteo, as he went on, accompanied every particular passage with critical observations and eulogiums: not unlike the hens, his inmates (as Don Michele sneeringly observed the next day), which first lay their eggs, and then cackle away in praise of their own labour.