Music, men and manners in France and Italy, 1770 / Charles Burney

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[...] to the concert spirituel at night to hear Mademoiselle Le Chantre more than anything else on the organ. - She did not answer my expectations - is but a pretty player, not a great one - her taste is formed from Italian and German compositions but she is often weak and inarticulate and her closes which she is fond of are very poor and both fanciless and fireless - M. Richer brother to Mrs Philidor has a most charming tenor voice - but having only French music to sing it was thrown away. However he was far less bad than the rest - M. Dauvergne is a very dull and heavy composer even in the oldest and worst French style - Bezozzi played a concerto charmingly - all the rest was the screaming of tortured infernals - the sopranos are squaled by cats in the shape of women. M. le Gros with a very fine counter tenor voice becomes by his constant performance in the French serious opera more and more intolerable every day. The motets are detestable.

excerpt from 'Music, men and manners in France and Italy, 1770 / Charles Burney' pp. 220 (178 words)

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