Italian Opera in Late Eighteenth-Century London: Volume I: The King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1778-1791

by Curtis Price, Judith Milhous, Robert D. Hume

Overview

This interdisciplinary study attempts to make sense of what has long been regarded as a chaotic period in the history of opera in London. In 1778, R.B. Sheridan acquired the King's Theatre and its resident opera company in what we would now call a leveraged buy-out, plunging the opera into escalating debts that were to haunt it into the 1840s. The 1780s and early 1790s were a stormy but exciting era: the company hired some of the foremost singers and dancers in Europe; ballet d'action came to London, with Noverre himself as ballet master; the company employed such composers as Sacchini, Anfossi, Cherubini and ultimately Haydn; it went bankrupt and carried on through years of wrangling in chancery; the King's Theatre burned down in 1789 and was rebuilt and re-opened in defiance of the Lord Chamberlain's refusal to license the new building. Drawing on libretti and scores, ballet scenarios, pamphlets, scattered manuscripts, legal records, architectural drawings, newspapers, and other sources, the authors reconstruct the history of the company and its shifting artistic policies, analyzing opera and ballet repertory, performers, production circumstances, finances, and managerial infighting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198161660
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/13/1995
Pages:	736
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.56(h) x 1.82(d)

About the Author

King's College, London

Graduate Center, City University of New York

Penn State University

Table of Contents

	List of Plates	xviii
	List of Tables	xx
	A Note on Names, Titles, and Quotation Policy	xxi
	Abbreviations and Works Frequently Cited	xxii
1.	The Italian Opera Establishment in London	1
I.	The Old Opera Establishment	2
II.	Views of Opera, 1750-1790	8
III.	London Style and Practice in the 1780s	27
IV.	The King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1705-1789	41
V.	The Outlook in 1778	52
2.	Ownership, Management, and Finances	55
I.	The Sheridan-Harris Administration, 1778-1781	56
II.	The First Taylor Regime, 1781-1783	66
III.	Interregnum: Gallini versus Taylor's Trustees, 1783-1785	74
IV.	Gallini in Command, 1785-1790	89
V.	A Summary of Opera Company Finances, 1778-1789	106
3.	Daily Operations and the Production Process	112
I.	The Structure of the Company	112
II.	Recruitment and Salaries	123
III.	House Management	134
IV.	Scenery, Properties, and Costumes	143
V.	Lighting and Special Effects	165
VI.	Some Notes on Performance Practice	172
4.	Opera under Sheridan (1778-1781)	182
I.	The Musical Establishment under Sheridan	183
II.	The 1777-78 Season: The Co-Managers' Swan-Song	193
III.	The 1778-79 Season: Pacchierotti's Debut	202
IV.	The 1779-80 Season: Le Texier's Downfall	220
V.	The 1780-81 Season: Ansani versus Roncaglia	249
5.	Opera under Taylor and his Trustees (1781-1785)	260
I.	The 1781-82 Season: Sacchini's 'Disgrace'	262
II.	The 1782-83 Season: Taylor's Annus horribilis	284
III.	The 1783-84 Season: Gallini versus Taylor's Trustees	297
IV.	The 1784-85 Season: Artistic Limbo	319
6.	Opera under Gallini (1785-1790)	335
I.	The 1785-86 Season: Gallini versus the Lord Chamberlain	340
II.	The 1786-87 Season: The Storaces' Return	360
III.	The 1787-88 Season: Marchesi Arrives; Storace Sues	383
IV.	The 1788-89 Season: Apogee and Immolation	408
V.	The 1789-90 Season: At the Little Haymarket	423
7.	The Ballet	437
I.	The Dance Company	439
II.	The Ballet d'action Comes to London, 1778-1781	444
III.	Noverre in London, 1781-82	461
IV.	Lepicq and Dauberval, 1782-1785	479
V.	The Gallini Regime, 1785-1790	507
VI.	The State of Ballet in London in 1790	536
8.	Fire and Rebuilding, 1789-1791	540
I.	The Destruction of the Old Theatre	541
II.	Competing Plans, Summer-Autumn 1789	543
III.	Financing the New Theatre, January-April 1790	547
IV.	The Leicester Square Theatre Patent Hearings, April 1790	551
V.	The Battle over the Site, July-December 1790	558
VI.	The New King's Theatre, Haymarket	562
9.	Haydn and the Opening of the New Theatre, Spring 1791	575
I.	The Failure of Merger Negotiations	576
II.	Salisbury and the Licensing Dispute	579
III.	'Rehearsals' and 'Entertainments' at the New Theatre	587
IV.	Haydn's L'anima del filosofo	595
V.	Ballet at the New Theatre	602
VI.	The New Theatre in Limbo	616
	Appendices
I.	Chancery Materials on Opera, 1778-1790	621
II.	William Taylor's Creditors	631
III.	Joseph Hayling's Lighting and Tinkering Accounts	639
IV.	Noverre's Scenario for Rinaldo and Armida (1782)	657
	Index	663

Editorial Reviews

"Essential."—Choice

"This new study provides some enlightening insights into the business side of the eighteenth century musical London."—Classical Music

"[A] lavishly-documented and richly entertaining book...an admirably clear and sensible narrative, often enlivened by flashes of humour...this is an outstanding contribution to the history of opera in England."—The Musical Times

"Seven-hundred pages allow a rich, thorough treatment of theater, personnel, and music that is unlikely ever to be superseded, so the responsibility of the authors is to be as fair as they are industrious. As far as I can see, they have succeeded in being both while remaining user-friendly in their writing style - direct, readable, warm, and alive to the humorous and less reputal parts of the story."—Albion

"With this volume the writers have produced a magnificent achievement in opera and ballet scholarship."—Unknown

From the Publisher