Leader, Philip Whiteway
Conductor, B. Walton O'Donnell

Rossini's one-act farce, Il Signor Bruschino, owes most of its fame to a legend. According to the story, Rossini wrote the music in such a way as to revenge himself on a manager he disliked - making the soprano sing low notes, the bass high ones, directing the second violins to strike their desks with the wood of their bows on the first beat of every bar in the overture, and so on. The only element of truth in all this is the fact that Rossini does instruct the second fiddles to tap a rhythm at certain points.