Opera and Drama in Eighteenth-Century London: The King's Theatre, Garrick and the Business of Performance

by Ian Woodfield

• ISBN13: 9780521028837
• ISBN10: 0521028833
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this study, Ian Woodfield explores the cultural and commercial life of Italian opera in late eighteenth-century London. It was a period when theatre and opera worlds mixed, venues were shared, and agents and managers collaborated and competed. Through primary sources, many analysed for the first time, Woodfield examines such issues as finances, recruitment policy, the handling of singers and composers, links with Paris and Italy, and the role of women in opera management. These key topics are also placed within the context of a personal dispute between two of the most important managers of the day, the woman writer Frances Brooke and the actor David Garrick, which influenced the running of the major venues, the King's Theatre, Drury Lane and Covent Garden. Woodfield has also uncovered new information concerning the influential role of the eighteenth-century music historian and critic Charles Burney, as artistic advisor to the King's Theatre.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. The Hobart management

2. The new managers take control

3. Sacchini and the revival of opera seria

4. Recruitment procedures and artistic policy

5. The King's Theatre in crisis

6. The recruitment of Lovattini

7. The English community in Rome

8. Lucrezia Agujari at the Pantheon

9. Caterina Gabrielli

10. Rauzzini's last season

11. The King's Theatre flourishes

12. The Queen of Quavers satire

13. Financial management

14. Opera salaries

15. The sale of 1778

Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Index.