The influence thus exerted by the executive artist could not fail to determine, to a great extent, the path of development in operatic composition. The great names of the more celebrated singers are to us indeed but names, for contemporary notices give us no clear idea of their performances,[16] and the music written for them, deprived of the direct charm of their personal impression, affords a most imperfect standard of judgment. From the middle of the last century the tendency to sacrifice all consideration to execution (bravura) became more and more marked; until at last, dramatic propriety, and the soul-inspiring calm of beautiful song, were alike buried beneath the weight of ornamentation and exaggerated flourishes,[17] serving only to display the pretensions of the vocalist and the dexterity of the composer. In this way the dramatic element of the opera became more and more neglected, until at last it was regarded as a superfluous and disturbing adjunct to the vocalisation.[18] {OPERA SERIA.} (164) The public too grew accustomed to confine their attention to the individual exploits of their favourites;[19] and the composer, unwilling to waste his energy on thankless parts, followed the example, and devoted his whole powers to a few individuals.[20] The enormous salary paid to celebrated singers, male and female, had the effect of limiting the number of principal parts to three or four, each distinguished as primo.[21] The remaining parts were treated by both the poet and the composer as subordinate, not only on account of the mediocre powers available for their representation, but also and chiefly because it would have been against the interests of the great singers that secondary characters should attract notice or applause. They controlled all secondary parts, suppressing or appropriating any song which they considered too brilliant, and leaving the author to arrange the piece as best he might.[22] There was a fixed code of etiquette in all stage arrangements. The prima donna, for instance, was entitled to have her train borne by one, or if a princess, by two pages; she took the place of honour at the right of the stage, being, as a rule, the most important personage of the piece. When Faustina Hasse played Dircea, in "Demofoonte" (1748), who is not recognised as a princess until late in the piece, she claimed precedence over the acknowledged Princess Creusa, and Metastasio himself was obliged to interfere in order to induce her to yield the point.[23] Thus all influences combined to mould the opera seria into a narrow conventional form, in which all other considerations were sacrificed to executive effect, and the display of skill and sensibility in the rendering of the music. We can form no clear conception whatever of the operatic {INSTRUMENTATION--THE OVERTURE.} (165)