Santurini summed things up for himself. ‘Perfect show.
You’ll won’t be sorry, Gasparini.’
Surveying the hall after the performance, the composer
had his doubts. It was a battlefield. The floor of the theatre was
covered in detritus and the mob had departed booing loudly. He
was afraid not a soul would show up the next night.
‘Nonsense!’ Santurini brusquely brushed aside ‘his’
composer’s worries. ‘The public loved it. All that booing is quite
usual. If they didn’t express an opinion it would look as if they
didn’t have one, or knew nothing about it. You might not yet be
aware of it, but our audiences are all musicologists!’ Grinning
broadly, he was busy counting up the takings. And the more he
counted the wider grew his smile. ‘Listen my friend, people come
to the theatre only for pleasure, warmth and to pass the time, and
whether or not they like it is a matter of the utmost indifference to
me.’
He dropped the lid of the cash-box with a loud crash and
turned the key in the lock. ‘Only one thing matters in this business,
and that’s a full hall!’ He rattled the box happily; obviously the only
tune Santurini cared about was the one made by clinking ducats.
But the impresario had been right. Night after night the
hall was reasonably well filled and every night the same scenario
replayed itself anew. Gasparini began to ask himself what sense
there was in launching so many new productions every season. For
all that people listened, you might as well just repeat the same
thing year after year.
One way and another, this opera had been a profitable
affair. After all deductions, including the cost of the singers,
Gasparini made a hundred and eight ducats. Easy winnings! But he
had also decided that this would be his final performance with
Santurini. The stress involved in this production was not something
Gasparini wished to have to look forward to again. His youngest
brother Michelangelo, a long-time resident of Venice, had warned
him in advance about the sly impresario. And on this occasion
Angelo, as he called his brother, had been correct. So, upon
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