What do I care that the wretched bassoonist squeaks in the orchestra, or that the Italians do not genuinely enjoy either painting or music, or anything else? I enjoy them quite enough myself, and there are more divine things here than one can grasp in a lifetime. And so the bad music disturbs me very little; though for the sake of truth I must confess that it is really bad.
So with one thing and another the winter is quietly slipping away; for today I saw oranges hanging in the sun. And since I told you about the serious aspect of Roman life, I must not suppress the fact that the day before yesterday I went to a great ball and did more dancing and had more fun than ever before in my life.
[Felix Mendelssohn, letter to Carl Friedrich Zelter, 18 Dec. 1830]
