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

by Price, Curtis; Milhous, Judith; Hume, Robert D.

• ISBN13: 9780198161660
• ISBN10: 0198161662
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-04-13
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

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 librettos 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.

Table of Contents

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