opera audiences, such as withholding applause until after an aria was completed, added to the general sense of self-esteem. Salting a conversation with such "high-sounding" Italian phrases as can-tina or parlando allowed operagoers to feel superior-a verbal "distanc- ing" technique also used for centuries lawyers who cited tidbits of Latin. Old New York patricians, McConachie suggests, came to believe that only those "who could get through an Italian opera without a social...