The budget of the manager depends on the subsidy and the subscription, in which box-holders must perforce participate owing to the system of _ingresso_ or entrance ticket--a system which consists in charging so much (a uniform price, as a rule) for entrance in addition to the price of your ticket. _Ingresso_ simply gives you the right to standing room, or you may join some friends in a box of theirs; and this method has been devised in view of the _palchettisti_, whose boxes would otherwise prove a profitless asset. The _palchettisti_ subscribe to the _ingresso_, and the general public to seats and _ingresso_ combined. But the _impressario_ does not get his subscription until he has given one-half of the stipulated performances. There is a further perquisite, called _adobbo_, in some southern Italian theatres--the Naples San Carlo, for instance--which brings in a goodish sum of money, and consists in charging two francs for attendance in every box. Judging from the name _adobbo_, it must be a relic of a time when attendance comprised some kind of "fixing" you up in your box. It is nothing of the sort to-day, and I am unable to explain why, after having paid for your box and _ingresso_, you are charged for the _adobbo_, which seems to me first cousin to the obnoxious _petit banc_ in French theatres. Besides these two elements, subvention and subscription, the _impressario_ has also the resource of raising the prices of seats, and entrance tickets how, and when, he pleases during the season, the fluctuation affecting, however, non-subscribers only. As a rule, the opening night of the season, and the production of a novelty are generally singled out for the adoption of this device; but, naturally enough, your manager has recourse to the measure, whenever an opera of his proves a sure draw, and results, just as much as customs, are there to justify the expedient. Should, however, the public fail to respond, the prices are lowered with the same alacrity with which they were raised. Thus you may have to pay L4 for your stall, say, at La Scala, day after day, or you may see on Wednesday for 5 francs (4s.) a performance you would have had to pay 100 francs (L4) for had you bought your ticket on Monday. This principle pervades the uses and customs of the Italian theatrical world, and is applicable to the letting of scores by publishers, who, untrammelled by such institutions as the Societe des Auteurs in France, or special laws as in Spain, can charge what they please for the hire of band parts and scores. There is nothing to prevent the publisher of _Lucia di Lammermoor_ from letting the music of the opera for 50 francs (L2) to an _impressario_ at Vigevano and charging 20,000 francs (L800) to another who produces it, say, at the Argentina of Rome, with Melba in the title-role.