Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 2, 2025
He had just received a formal note from the Graf von Lira, inclosing the amount due to him for lessons, and dispensing with his services for the future. Of course this was the result of the visit Nino had so rashly made; it all came out afterwards, and I will not now go through the details that De Pretis poured out, when we only half knew the truth.
In that wicked city the opera continues through Lent, and after some haggling, in which De Pretis insisted on obtaining for Nino the most advantageous terms, the contract was made out and signed. I see very well that unless I hurry myself I shall never reach the most important part of this story, which is after all the only part worth telling.
Nino could not sit still, and went and leaned over Sor Ercole, as we call the maestro, hanging on the notes, not daring to try and sing, for he had lost his voice, but making the words with his lips. "Dio mio!" he cried at last, "how I wish I could sing that!" "Try it," said De Pretis, laughing and half interested by the boy's earnest look. "Try it I will sing it again." But Nino's face fell.
"A pretty mess you have made with your ridiculous love affair! Here am I " "I see you are," retorted Nino; "and do not call any affair of mine ridiculous, or I will throw you out of the window. Wait a moment!" With that he slammed his door in the maestro's face, and went on with his dressing. For a few minutes De Pretis raved at his ease, venting his wrath on me. Then Nino came out.
However that may be, it was very soon afterwards that he went to the Palazzo Carmandola, dressed in his best clothes, he tells me, in order to make a favourable impression on the count. The latter had spoken to De Pretis about the lessons in literature, to which he attached great importance, and the maestro had turned the idea to account for his pupil.
Nino, who had not sung for months, took courage and a long breath, and went on as he was bid, his voice gaining volume and clearness as he sang higher. Then De Pretis stopped and looked at him earnestly. "You are mad," he said. "You have not lost your voice at all." "It was quite different when I used to sing before," said the boy. "Per Bacco, I should think so," said the maestro.
But days passed, and a letter came from Nino written immediately after sending the telegram, and still we had accomplished nothing. The letter merely amplified the telegraphic message. "It is no use," I said to De Pretis. "And besides, it is much better that he should forget all about it." "You do not know that boy," said the maestro, taking snuff. And he was quite right, as it turned out.
Also will I remember his laudable-and-not-lacking independence character. Nevertheless, unfitting would it be should I pay the first tenor of the opera five francs an hour to teach my daughter Italian literature." De Pretis breathed more freely. "Then you will forgive me, Signor Conte, for endeavouring to promote the efforts of this worthy young man in supporting himself?"
There was an air of disciplined luxury in the room that spoke of a rich old soldier who fed his fancy with tit-bits from a stirring past. De Pretis felt very uncomfortable, but the nobleman rose to greet him, as he rose to greet everything above the rank of a servant, making himself steady with his stick. When De Pretis was seated he sat down also. The rain pattered against the window.
"Signor De Pretis," said the count, with a certain quaint geniality, "I have my precautions observed. I examined Signor Cardegna in Italian literature in my own person, and him proficient found. Had I found him to be ignorant, and had I his talents as an operatic singer later discovered, I would you out of that window have projected."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking