Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 19, 2025
Ordained by Pius IX himself, afterwards becoming a Canon of the Vatican Basilica, and /Cameriere segreto/, he had risen to the post of Majordomo about the time of the Italian occupation, and in 1874 had been created a Cardinal.
A row of saints, founders of orders, kneel one behind the other, and by their side stand apostles and doctors of the Church; admitting them to the sight of the super-human, with the gesture, the bland, indifferent vacuity of the Cameriere Segreto or Monsignore who introduces a troop of pilgrims to the Pope; they are privileged persons, they respect, they keep up decorum, they raise their eyes and compress their lips with ceremonious reverence; but, Lord! they have gone through it all so often, they are so familiar with it, they don't look at it any longer; they gaze about listlessly, they would yawn if they were not too well bred for that.
Unfavourable reports were circulated about the ladies, the mother having almost lost caste since she had become a widow, and the girl having too bold a beauty, too conquering an air. Thus the marriage had not met with the approval of Serafina, who was very rigid, or of Onofrio's elder brother Pio, at that time merely a /Cameriere segreto/ of the Holy Father and a Canon of the Vatican basilica.
No sooner had he gone than she sat down to the piano, and began singing, song after song, as she had never sung before English, German, French, Italian songs of passion and of pain Beethoven's Kennst du das Land, and Spohr's Rose softly blooming, and Blumenthal's Old, Old Story, and then Il Segreto and O mio Fernando and Stride la vampa, and rising to heights she seldom attempted, Modi ab modi and Ab fors' e lui che l'anima; pouring forth without restraint all the long-pent yearing of her heart, all the madness and misery of a desire which might be expressed in no other way; until outside in the street the passers-by slackened their steps and lingered before the windows, wondering at that strange storm of melody.
Their Nesta was heard on the descent of the stairs, with a rattle of Donizetti's Il segreto to the skylights. He performed his never-omitted lover's homage. Nataly enfolded him in a homely smile. 'A country-house? We go and see it to-morrow? 'And you've been pining for a country home, my dear soul. 'After the summer six weeks, the house in London does not seem a home to return to.
Moreover, a place at Rome was marked out for him, for he there had powerful connections. He was a nephew by marriage of Cardinal Sarno, whose sister had married another of his uncles, a Paris notary; and he was also cousin german of Monsignor Gamba del Zoppo, a /Cameriere segreto/, and son of one of his aunts, who had married an Italian colonel.
A coffin has been discovered among the ruins of Elgin cathedral, supposed to be that of the royal victim of Macbeth. When Cimarosa's opera of Matrimonio Segreto was performed before the Emperor Joseph, he invited all the singers to a banquet, and then in a fit of enthusiasm, sent them all back to the theatre to play and sing the whole opera over again! Foreign Review.
In 1783 the Earl heard a singer named Allegranti in Dresden, then at the height of her powers. Later she returned to England and reappeared in Cimarosa's Matrimonio Segreto.
The other singers were Rubini, Tamburini, and Mlle. Allessandri, and the audience was of the utmost distinction, including the foremost people in the art, literary, and social circles of Paris. The debutante was well received, but it was not until she appeared in Cimarosa's "Il Matrimonio Segreto" that she was fully appreciated.
He shone particularly in comedy. His 'Gli Orazi e Curiazi, which moved his contemporaries to tears, is now forgotten, but 'Il Matrimonio Segreto' still delights us with its racy humour and delicate melody.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking