Event Comment: An Italian Comic Opera by some performers just arriv'd from Paris. Went off pretty well, -a Girl greatly admir'd (Cross). [The girl seems to have been Sga Spiletta.] She plays off with inexhaustible spirits all muscular evolutions of the face and brows; while in her eye wantons a studied archness, and pleasing malignity. Her voice has strength and scope sufficient; has neither too much of the feminine, nor an inclining to the male. Her gestures are ever varying; her transitions quick and easy. Some over-nice critics, forgetting, or not knowing the meaning of the word Burletta, cry that her manner is outre. Wou'd she not be faulty were it otherwise? The thing chargeable to her is (perhaps) too great a luxurience of comic tricks; which (an austere censor would say) border on unlaced lasciviousness, and extravagant petulance of action (Paul Hiffernan, The Tuner, No 1). [Spiletta was the name of the character to whom Sga Nicolina Giordani gave such life that the name stuck to her. See Saxe Wyndham, Annals of Covent Garden Theatre.] [A Comic Opera by G. Giordani, Music by G. Cocchi-Nicoll, English Drama, III, p. 349.] Nothing less than the full price will be taken during the Performance. Printed books of the opera sold at the theatre. Tomorrow, Venice Preserved. [Murphy commented in Gray's Inn Journal (22 Dec.): "A great deal of whatever humour this production may contain, is certainly lost to an English audience; and the manner of acting, being a burlesque upon what people here are not very well acquainted with, is not universally felt. But notwithstanding these disadvantages, there is one among them, Sga Nicolina Giordani, who displayed such lively traces of Humour in her countenance, and such pleasing variety of action, and such variety of graceful deportment, that she is generally acknowledged to be, in that Cast of playing, an excellent comic actress."

Event Comment: Printed books of the opera will be sold at the theatre. Published this day at 1s. Lo Studente A La Moda, dramma comicogiocoso, as it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. With an English Translation. Sold by H. Woodfall...Where may be had Gli Amanti Gelosi, with an English translation. [Opera in there acts in Italian and French. Larpent MS 103. Altered from A. Polomba La Violante. Music by G. B. Pergolesi. Rich applied to the Duke of Grafton (9 Jan.) for license to perform it.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Cibber. Last time of acting it this season. [Seven rows of Pit laid into Boxes, and amphitheatre on stage. Send servants at 3 o'clock.] Receipts: #240 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Passerini at the Great Room, Dean Street, Soho. N.B. The Pastoral will precede the Oratorio. The Pastoral, by Desire. The overture and greatest part of which composed by his Majesty the King of Prussia. Mainpiece by Handel. Tickets for the 29th will be taken. Tickets at half a guinea for the Pit, and 5s. for the Gallery. To begin at 6:30 p.m. [The Pastoral is not named in the Bill, but from comment on its musical composer is deemed to be Charlottenburg Festegiante. See 16 March.

Event Comment: PPublic Advertiser: The Uncommon Applause of the new Entertainment...has excited the curiosity of a great many of the Nobility and Gentry that had never seen Marybone before. Sga Seratina and Mr Reinhold have distinguished themselves surprisingly; and though this Entertainment is performed in the English Language, clearly proves, that it is in the Power of an Englishman, to excel even the Italians in that kind of performance; Sga Seratina (though an Italian) expresses the English Dialect with all the Graces, and proper Expressions, which that kind of performance requires. [Books of the performance to be had at the Bar 6d. each.

Event Comment: N.B. We have engag'd Mr King; & Miss Baker from Ireland, one Mr Moody, a Stroler,-Mr Beard is gone to Covent Garden, 'tis said to be manager Mr Mossop to Ireland. Receipts: #120 (Cross). Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places from Mr Varney at the Stage Door. No admittance behind scenes. [The customary note about prices and admittance will not be noted further here.] [At the opening of the theatres this season appeared an essay in Goldsmith's Bee, giving close observations upon actors, and deploring the relative stiffness and formality of English actors in comparison with the French. Advised English actors to travel abroad. Yet (Vol. 1759, p. 12) commented on the magnificnece of "our theatres as far superior to any others in Europe where plays only are acted. The great care our performers take in painting for a part, their exactness in all minutiae of dress, and other little scenical proprieties has been taken notice of by Riccoboni." Complains of the convention of laying a rug before a dying scene and of the vacant expressions of mutes on stage.

Event Comment: At Yeates' Theatrical Booth, Greyhound Inn, during the time of Bartholomew Fair. The whole to be decorated with decency, and propriety, together with a grand Band of Music, consisting of French Horns, Violins, Trumpets, Hautboys, &c. N.B. There is a convenient Way to the theatre in Cow Lane for coaches, where Ladies and Gentlemen may have admittance without interruption. Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit 2s. First Gallery 1s. Upper 6d. [Several persons had provided booths in the Inns at Smithfield to perform Drolls and Interludes, as had been customary for many years, and were preparing to exhibit accordingly; but the City Marshall and other officers, by order of the Lord Mayor oblig'd them to take down their Shew Cloths and decamp (Morley, Memoirs of Bartholemew Fair).

Event Comment: Places may be taken at the Theatre. To begin at one o'clock. [The notice is placed as (and continues hereafter to run as) a news item, rather than in the customary form for advertisements in the Public Advertiser.

Event Comment: A New English Opera. The Music Compos'd by Mr Rush. Signora Cremonini, Clementini, made her first appearance on this Stage in the Character of Eliza. Sings very well, very Graceful Deportm[en]t & is a great Support to the Opera. many of the Songs were Encor'd. Some few Hisses. but upon the whole, was pretty well receiv'd (Hopkins). Books of the Opera to be sold at the Theatre. A new English Opera, the Royal Shepherd-the Musick composed by Mr Rush.-Siga Cremonini made her first appearance,--sings ver fine,--very graceful deportment, and is a great support to the Opera.--Some hisses--Many of the songs encored. Upon the whole was well liked...On this occasion the Stage was cut near two feet and a half to enlarge the orchestra, to make it contain the additional performers who belong to the Opera House, on whose account the Opera cannot be performed Tuesdays and Saturdays (Hopkins Diary-MacMillan)

Event Comment: Book of the opera to be had at the Theatre. A serious English Opera with music by Mr Bates. [These notes appear on all bills this season.] Well received but neglected (Victor, History of the Theatres, III, 63). [Altered from the Italian by Thomas Hull.] We hear a patent will be made out, in favor of an eminent English actor, who intends to establish a Playhouse at New York (Winston MS 9)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Desire. Afterpiece with alterations and additions. [A song sung in the "New Scene in Harlequin's Invasion" appears in The Jester's Magazine, May 1766, p. 254. Harlequin enters with a Dancing Bear, and sings four stanzas in broken English about the advantages of dancing, for men, women, philosophers, and politicians. Harlequin's speech is Frenchified English.