He had gone thither for the purpose
of engaging the celebrated prima donna, Bianca Lalli, to sing at
Ravenna during the coming Carnival. The pretension was a very
ambitious one on the part of the impresario--or, as it may be more
properly said, on the part of the city--for the step was by no means
the result of his own independent and unaided enterprise. Such
matters were not done in that way in the good old times in the
smaller cities of Italy. The matter had been much debated among the
leading patrons of the musical drama in the little town. The chances
of success had been canvassed. The financial question had been
considered. Certain sacrifices had been determined on. And it had
been settled what terms the impresario should be empowered to offer.
It had been fully felt and recognised that the hope of engaging the
famous Bianca Lalli to sing at remote little Ravenna, during a
carnival, was a singularly ambitious one. But there had been
circumstances which had led those who had conceived the bold idea to
hope that it would not prove to be so impossible as it might at
first sight appear. There had been whispers of certain difficulties-
-untoward circumstances at Milan. Ill-natured things had been said
of the "divina Lalli." Doubtless she had been more sinned against
than sinning. But to put the matter crudely--which, of course, no
Italian who had to speak of it, was ever so ill-bred as to do--it
would seem that the great singer had placed herself, or had been
placed, in such relations with somebody or other bearing a great
name in the Lombard capital, that the paternal Austrian government,
at the instance of that somebody's family, had seen good to hint, in
some gentle, but unmistakable manner, that it might, on the whole,
be better that the divine Lalli should bless some other city with
her presence during the ensuing season.
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