as Signora Barmis had suggested. For the housewarming he invited all the best-known musicians and music critics of Rome for a piano recital of music from the opera The New Colony, composed by the young Maestro Aldo di Marco. The composer’s name drew a blank with everyone. All anyone knew was that this di Marco was a very rich Venetian Jew and that in order to set The New Colony to music, he had made such offers that Boggiolo had hurriedly broken off negotiations with one of the more distinguished composers. Although Giustino didn’t expect much to come of this work, and in fact he hoped it had only modest success so it wouldn’t cast a shadow over the play, nevertheless he had his journalist friends announce that the composition would soon be introduced in Italy, etc., etc., and he had a picture printed in the newspapers of the slender, not too well-groomed young Venetian maestro, who . . . etc., etc. The announcement had seemed to him necessary and opportune, not only considering the enormous amount of money the composer spent to set the successful play to music (with lyrics by Cosimo Zago), but also to enhance the solemnity of the inaugural evening.
