The Colony

than your insolence. — N. And she still will not give in! What stubbornness. — M. aside However, I should treat him a little better. What if... if it happened... — N. also aside Let us leave this proud woman. — M. Nardo, listen. — N. What do you want? — M. I want to appease myself. Come, ask my forgiveness. — N. What! Do you take me for a fool? Ask your forgiveness! Rather our cat! — M. Well, I am leaving. — N. What is it to me? Here is your path. — M. I am going this way. — M. And I, that way.

Then follows the duet, which contains nothing but mockery on the part of Nardo and insults on the part of Marine. In the first ariette short aria, the Governor claims that the triumphal arch erected for Marine to pass through is the model of her beauty. This excessively Italian comparison might have seemed strange to our French ladies, and would surely not have been to their taste.

One realizes how much it was necessary to change this style and this outline; how many reasons, motives, and probabilities had to be introduced; and this, without disturbing the structure, without touching the situations, nor even the basis of each scene that led to the ariette. If one considers that all this work was independent of that which had to be done to put French words to the music, in such a way as to preserve all the scenes and not cause the ears to bleed, perhaps, far from reproaching the author for his irregularities, one will be grateful to him for his efforts, which have served to render in France, to the music of the famous Sacchini, the justice it deserves.