«La verità della cosa che si va a rappresentare»

In a letter dated 10 July 1797, Boccherini advised Ignace Pleyel not to publish La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid, fearing that it might even be «ridiculous» outside Spain. Through a re-examination of some pieces already analysed elsewhere, and in the light of a comparison with Mozart’s Musikalischer Spaß, the present article puts forward a hypothesis on the possible reasons for Boccherini’s skepticism towards one of his most appreciated and performed pieces today.