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

by Ian Woodfield

• ISBN13: 9780521800129
• ISBN10: 0521800129
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-21
• 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

List of tables	ix
List of musical examples	x
Acknowledgements	xi
A note on conventions	xiii
Introduction	1	(18)
The Hobart management	19	(10)
The new managers take control	29	(11)
Sacchini and the revival of opera seria	40	(12)
Recruitment procedures and artistic policy	52	(8)
The King's Theatre in crisis	60	(17)
The recruitment of Lovattini	77	(16)
The English community in Rome	93	(12)
Lucrezia Agujari at the Pantheon	105	(16)
Caterina Gabrielli	121	(10)
Rauzzini's last season	131	(22)
The King's Theatre flourishes	153	(13)
The Queen of Quavers satire	166	(16)
Financial management	182	(16)
Opera salaries	198	(17)
The sale of 1778	215	(80)
Appendices
1a The accounts of Richard Yates and James Brooke at Henry Hoare & Co. (1773--1777)	234	(17)
1b The customer account ledgers of Sheridan and Harris (1778--1779)	251	(6)
1c Selected entries from the account of Jonathan Garton at Drummonds Bank (1778--1779)	257	(1)
1d The account of Gasparo Pacchierotti at Coutts & Co. (1779--1784)	258	(5)
1e A page of opera payments and receipts in the Salt MSS (1780)	263	(2)
2a Petition to the Lord Chamberlain (c.1770)	265	(4)
2b Petition to the Lord Chamberlain (c. 1775)	269	(3)
2c Draft petition to the Lord Chamberlain from Sheridan and Harris (1777)	272	(4)
3a Journal Etranger, No. 1 (June 1777)	276	(7)
3b Opera reviews from Journal Etranger (1777--1778)	283	(12)
Notes	295	(28)
Bibliography	323	(8)
Index	331