While "Don Giovanni" was thus becoming familiar to opera-goers in the north, and even in Petersburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, it had not met with any very warm or general sympathy in Italy, where repeated attempts to introduce it to the public had resulted only in a certain amount of respectful recognition from connoisseurs. "Don Giovanni" was first given in Rome in 1811, no pains having been spared in the rehearsals, and few alterations made in the opera. The audience was very attentive, and applauded loudly; the music was termed "bellissima, superba, sublime, un musicone"--but not altogether "del gusto del paese"; the many _stranezze_ might be "belissime," but they were not what people were accustomed to.[61] A more successful attempt was made in Naples in the following year, although not on so grand a scale; the audience were attentive, and seemed to accustom themselves to the _musica classica_, but even here the success was not lasting.[62] The first representation at Milan in 1814 provoked quite as much hissing as applause, but subsequent performances were more successful.[63] At Turin the opera appears to have pleased in 1815, in spite of its wretched performance.[64] A mangled version of "Don Giovanni" was given at Florence in 1818, and failed, but it was afterwards very well received in its true form;[65] in 1857, as a friend wrote to me, "the antiquated hyperborean music" was so emphatically hissed that it could not be risked again. In Genoa, too, in 1824, "Don Giovanni" pleased the learned, but not the public;[66] and at Venice, in 1833, it gained some {DON GIOVANNI.} (144) little popularity by slow degrees.[67] Quite lately a celebrated Italian singer exclaimed angrily at a rehearsal of "Don Giovanni": "Non capisco niente a questa maledetta musica!"[68] Against all this must be placed Rossini's charming answer when he was pressed to say which of his own operas he liked best: one person present suggested one, another the other, till at last Rossini exclaimed: "Vous voulez connaître celui de mes ouvrages que j'aime le mieux; eh bien, c'est 'Don Giovanni.'"[69] The fame of "Don Giovanni" did not long remain confined to the old world. When Garcia and his daughters were giving Italian operas at New York in 1825, at Da Ponte's suggestion they produced