The Emperor announced his wish to the theatrical manager, Affligio. Leopold Mozart, knowing that the fate of an opera greatly depends on the performers, strove to win the goodwill of the artists, male and female; this was not difficult to accomplish, for it was felt that unusual applause would be given to the work of so young an artist, and Affligio was urged on all sides to undertake the production of the work. He was ready enough to consent; and concluded a contract to produce the opera, with an honorarium to the composer of 100 ducats. The singers available for opera seria were not by any means of the first rank. On September 29, 1767, L. Mozart gives as his opinion that Hasse's opera ("Partenope") is fine, but the singers, considering the occasion, indifferent; Tibaldi was the tenor; Rauzzini, of Munich, the best male soprano; the {GLUCK'S "ALCESTE."} (69) prima donna was Elizabeth Deiberin (Teyber), daughter of a Viennese court violinist, and pupil of Tesi and Hasse. Gluck had not been willing to entrust his "Alceste" to these singers. "Alceste" was brought out in Vienna on December 16, 1767; Bemasconi made a great sensation as Alceste, but Tibaldi took Admetus. The Mozarts were then at Olmtitz, but they had an opportunity on their return of hearing what L. Mozart calls "Gluck's melancholy 'Alceste.'" It is a remarkable coincidence, that in the act of writing his first opera, Wolfgang should have witnessed in Gluck's "Alceste" the most marked attempt yet made for the reform of dramatic music; and it is not unlikely that early association may have been partly the cause that he afterwards studied "Alceste" with unquestionable partiality. L. Mozart's ideas were too firmly rooted in the tradition of Italian music to enable him to appreciate Gluck's innovations. That the public in general were of his opinion is evident from Sonnenfels' mimicry of the gossip, not of the gallery, but of the boxes of the nobility:-- "This is edifying! Nine days without a play, and on the tenth we get a De profundis--What? This is meant to be pathetic? Well, perhaps we shall shed a few tears presently--from _ennui_." "Come, this is throwing money away! It is too absurd, a fool of a woman dying for her husband!" The members of the Opera Buffa, on the contrary, were of first-rate excellence;[9] the die was cast, therefore, for an opera buffa. The text was furnished by Marco Coltellini, who had been "Theatrical Poet" in Vienna since 1764, and in 1772 was made "Imperial Poet" at the court of St. Petersburg. He wrote after the manner of Metastasio, who complimented him highly;[10] his principal libretti were for Gassmaun ("Amore {THE FIRST OPERA IN VIENNA.} (70)