There were as many blacks and mulattoes among the students as
whites, but the number of them altogether was inconsiderable.
Music, especially singing and the pianoforte, is almost in a more
degraded position than painting. In every family the young ladies
play and sing; but of tact, style, arrangement, time, etc., the
innocent creatures have not the remotest idea, so that the easiest
and most taking melodies are often not recognisable. The sacred
music is a shade better, although even the arrangements of the
Imperial Chapel itself are susceptible of many improvements. The
military bands are certainly the best, and these are generally
composed of negroes and mulattoes.
The exterior of the Opera-house does not promise anything very
beautiful or astonishing, and the stranger is, consequently, much
surprised to find, on entering, a large and magnificent house with a
deep stage. I should say it could contain more than 2,000 persons.
There are four tiers of spacious boxes rising one above the other,
the balustrades of which, formed of delicately-wrought iron trellis-
work, give the theatre a very tasty appearance.
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