Event Comment: A Serious Opera; the music by Tarchi. Mme Mara being indisposed, the new serious Opera, L'Amore Protetto dal Cielo; o sia, La Vestale, is unavoidably postponed; and Sga Benini will appear this evening for the first time in the character of Virginia. Receipts: #104 0s. 6d. [non-subscription]

Event Comment: [The playbill announces La Scola dei Maritati, but "The indisposition of Sga Angelelli made an alteration in the opera, and the audience were gratified with Mme Mara (recte Banti) in Nina" (Morning Chronicle, 1 Feb.).

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Theodore. Tickets made out and delivered for the 1st of April will be admitted, and may be had of Mme Theodore, No. 5, Great Pultney-street, Golden-square. Public Advertiser, 15 May: The Ballet was founded on the French piece of Le Deserteur, of which there was retained a good deal of the

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Banti. A Grand Serious Opera (1st time in this country [1st performed at Vienna, 1767]), accompanied with Chorusses and Dances. The music entirely by Gluck. With entirely new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. Books of the Opera now to be had at the Office of the Theatre, and at Beckett, Bookseller, Pall Mall. Morning Chronicle, 28 Apr.: To be performed exactly in the same manner as it was represented at Paris, under the direction of Gluck himself. Tickets to be had of Mme Banti, No. 3, Hay-market. Bartolozzi having presented Mme Banti, for her night, with a Ticket designed on purpose and engraved by himself, she proposes to give one of the engravings along with each Box and Pit Tickets, separately from the Ticket which will be admitted at the door. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:15 [see 20 June]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Banti. A New Serious Opera [1st time; SER 2]. The Poetry by Metastasio, and the Music entirely new, composed by an English Gentleman [Richard Edgcumbe, Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe], who has obligingly lent Mme Banti the Score, and kindly consented to its being represented upon that occasion. Tickets to be had of Mme Banti, No. 24, St. Alban's-street. "Having granted the use of this opera to Banti only, I withdrew it immediately, and would not permit it to be again represented for the manager, who requested to have it. After this, Roselli sung no more, nor had we ever another soprano [i.e. castrato] at the opera [until 1825]" (Mount-Edgcumbe, 88)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Banti. A Grand Serious Opera (1st time in this Country [1st performed at Paris, 1779]); the Music by Gluck. Accompanied With Chorusses under the Direction of Kelly. With entirely new Scenes designed by Marinari, and executed under his direction, Dresses and Decorations. Tickets to be had of Mme Banti, No. 7, Hay Market. The Company are respectfully entreated not to come upon the Stage this Night, as the Iphigenia is accompanied with a degree of Spectacle on which the effect of the Performance chiefly depends; besides, the Machinery used in this Opera will make it dangerous for the Company to be upon the Stage during the time of the representation. "We never saw a House more splendid, more crowded, nor more gratified...In spite of the request not to crowd upon the stage, it was quite thronged; and it was impossible to move the complicated and superb scenery with effect. We lament that no means can be devised to save the stage from this perpetual intrusion" (Morning Chronicle, 8 Apr.). "Banti had a crowded house for her benefit, and is said to have netted 1500 guineas" (Monthly Magazine, May 1796 p. 321)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Banti. A new Opera, with Chorusses. 1st time in this Country [1st performed privately at the Royal Palace, Caserta, 1789; publicly at Naples, 1790]. The Music entirely by Paisiello. Tickets to be had of Mme Banti, No. 10, St. Alban's-street

Event Comment: Benefit for Vestris? Jun. Opera: In 2 acts; the music by Piccinni, and conducted by Bianchi. With new Scenes painted by Novosielski. New Dresses and Decorations both for the Opera and Dances. Mme Simonet will this Evening reassume her station at the Opera House; but as she is not perfectly recovered from the consequences of her late Accidnet, she hopes for the indulgence of the Public, from whom she has already received so many flattering proofs of Approbation. Tickets, 10s. 6d., to be had of Vestris, No. 5, Leicester-street, Leicester-fields. "Last Thursday was the benefit of Vestris and son; the house could not receive and contain the multitudes that presented themselves. Their oblations amounted to fourteen hundred pounds" (Walpole [26 Feb. 1781], XI, 406)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mons and Mme Bithmere, and Le Baruf, Composers and principal Performers of the Dramatic Romance of The Rival Knights. Gazetteer, 7 May: Tickets to be had of Mons and Mme Bithmere and of Le Boeuf at Stacy's, colourman, corner of Long-acre. Receipts: #101 8s. 6d. (73/0/6; tickets: 28/8/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Henry Bate]: With new Music, Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. The Music (with a few exceptions) composed entirely new by Shield. And new Scenery designed and chiefly executed by Richards. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [Williamson was formely a chorus singer at this theatre; Mme Pieltain had sung at the king's in the season of 1788-89. Afterpiece in place of The Deaf Lover, advertised on playbill of 25 Feb.] "The author is very little responsible for his part of the entertainment, which he acknowledges was composed chiefly for the purpose of [the music, which] in the taste of the present day is almost the only essential part of such an entertainment" (Gazetteer, 28 Feb.). Oracle, 7 May 1791: Thas Day is published The Woodman (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #243 2s. (239.17.6; 3.4.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 2, by Jeremiah Meyer and William Hayley, "from the German." Larpent MS 941; not published; synopsis of plot in Morning Herald, 18 Apr.]: With new Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations. The Music selected from Ditteus [i.e. Dittersdorf], Rauzzini and Salieri; the Overture and new Music by Reeve. Book of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [Mme Carnevale had 1st appeared at king's in 1783.] Receipts: #252 3s. 6d. (242.19.6; 9.4.0)

Event Comment: [The playbill announces Nina, but "Last night the grand tragic opera of Semiramide was revived, in which Mme Banti and Viganoni received all their usual applause. [In the new dance] there is a charming pas de deux by Didelot and Rose" (Morning Chronicle, 3 Jan.).

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Banti. A new Serious Opera [1st performed at Florence, 1795]; the Music by Paisiello [with additions by Benelli, Federici and Guglielmi]

Event Comment: A Comic Opera; the Music by Paisiello. The Dialogue, for the first time in this Country, will be delivered without the Music of the Recitative. "Nina [Bolla] performed for her benefit in a novel and singular manner, the dialogue being spoken in prose without recitative, which had not a bad effect; but this way of acting it was deemed an infringement of the rights of the English theatres, and after a few nights it was stopped by authority, as unlawful at the Opera" (Mount-Edgcumbe, 111-12). Tickets to be had of Mme Bolla, No. 6, Haymarket

Event Comment: ["Mara pretended illness and ruin'd herself with the Town" (Kemble Mem.). To what this refers is not clear; she performed, as announced, on 10 Nov., and there is no indication that she was supposed to appear on this present night.] Receipts: #173 10s. 6d. (122.7.6; 49.0.0; 2.3.0)