Event Comment: The
United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but it very probably occurred not later than May 1691, as the play was advertised in the
London Gazette, 4-8 June 1691. For discussions of it, see
E. W. White,
Early Performances of Purcell's Operas,
Theatre Notebook, XIII (1958-59), 44-45, and
R. E. Moore,
Henry Purcell and the Restoration Theatre, Chapter III.
Downes,
Roscius Anglicanus, p. 42:
King Arthur an Opera, wrote by
Mr Dryden: it was Excellently Adorn'd with Scenes and Machines: The Musical Part set by Famous
Mr Henry Purcel; and Dances made by
Mr Jo. Priest: The Play and Musick pleas'd the Court and City, and being well perform'd, twas very Gainful to the Company.
Roger North: I remember in Purcell's excellent opera of
King Arthur, when
Mrs Butler, in the person of
Cupid, was to call up
Genius, she had the liberty to turne her face to the scean, and ner back to the theater. She was in no concerne for her face, but sang a recitativo of calling towards the place where Genius was to rise, and performed it admirably, even beyond any thing I ever heard upon the
English stage....And I could ascribe it to nothing so much as the liberty she had of concealing her face, which she could not endure should be so contorted as is necessary to sound well, before her gallants, or at least her envious sex. There was so much of admirable musick in that opera, that it's no wonder it's lost; for the English have no care of what's good, and therefore deserve it not (
Roger North on Music, ed.
John Wilson [London, 1959], p. 217-18)