Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is stated in Luttrell, A Brief Relation, II, 435, 28 April 1692: On Monday will be acted a new opera, call the Fairy Queen: exceeds former playes: the clothes, scenes, and musick cost 3000#. [According to Some Select Songs As they are Sung in the Fairy Queen (1692) tne singers were Mrs Ayliff, Mrs Dyer, Freeman, Mrs Butler, and Pate. See Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XII (1903), ii; E. W. White, Early Performances of Purcell's Operas, Theatre Notebook, XIII (1958-59 ), 45; and R. E. Moore, Henry Purcell and the Restoration Theatre, Chapter IV.] Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 42-43: The Fairy Queen, made into an Opera, from a Comedy of Mr Shakespeare s: This in Ornaments was Superior to the other Two [King Arthur and The Prophetess]; especially in Cloaths, for all the Singers and Dancers, Scenes, Machines and Decorations, all most profusely set off; and excellently perform'd, chiedly the Instrumental and Vocal part Compos'd by the said Mr Purcel, and Dances by Mr Priest. The Court and Town were wonderfully satisfy'd with it; but the Expences in setting it out being so great, the Company got very little by it. Gentleman's Journal, May 1692: The Opera of which I have spoke to you in my former hath at last appear'd, and continues to be represented daily: it is call'd, The Fairy Queen. The Drama is originally Shakespears, the Music and Decorations are extraordinary. I have heard the Dances commended, and without doubt the whole is very entertaining. [As the May issue of the Gentleman's Journal was licensed on 14 May, the statement that The Fairy Queen continued to be acted daily may indicate consecutive performances from 2 May to at le ast 14 May 1692.

Event Comment: [By Niccola Haym. Apparently never printed.] Colman's Opera Register: A new Pastorall Opera called Dorinda. The musick of this is taken out of Severall Italian operas by Nico Haym. In this Sigra Margarita had no part. The other Singers the same as in the former [The Faithful Shepherd], the Same Scene & Habits also & the same prices. It was performed 4 times on the opera days successively

Event Comment: [Text by N. F. Haym. Music by G. F. Handel.] Colman's Opera Register: Mr O. Swiny ye Manager of ye Theatre was now setting out a New Opera, Heroick. all ye Habits new & richer than ye former with 4 New Scenes, & other Decorations & Machines. Ye Tragick Opera was called Theseus. Ye Musick composed by Mr Handel....ye Opera being thus prepared Mr Swiny would have got a Subscription for Six times, but could not.--he then did give out Tickets at half a Guinea each, for two Nights ye Boxes lay'd open to ye Pit, ye House was very full these two Nights

Event Comment: New Dances, new Clothes, new Decorations. A new serious Opera; music by several celebrated Composers. Pit and Boxes put together and no Persons to be admitted without Tickets, which will be delivered this Day, at Half a Guinea each; First Gallery 5s. Second Gallery 3s. Gallery, Pit, and Boxes open at Five. By their Majesties Command, no Person whatsoever to be admitted behind the Scenes or into the Orchestra. 6:30 p.m. Vivant Rex et Regina. [Notice repeated in the bills.] [Messrs. Vincent and Gordon, Managers of the Operas had noted (Public Advertiser, 9 Sept.) their engagement of singers: For the Serious Opera: Guarducci, first Man; Signora Campolini, first Woman; Savoi, second Man; Signora Querzioli, second Woman; Signora Piatti, third Woman; Michelli The Comic Opera: Lovattini, first Man; Signora Guadagni, first Woman; Savoi, serious Man; Signora Querzoli, serious Woman; Moriggi (Bass); Signora Piatti, third Woman; Michelli. Also engaged: Guglielmi and Alessandri, Composers; Pugniani, first Violin; Signora Coradini a new Dancer.

Event Comment: The proprietors of the Opera House think it is their duty to lay before the Nobility and Gentry to whose patronage they are highly endebted a list of the engagements made for the ensuing season. [No attention or expense spared to make the operas brilliant. Gordon spent two months in Italy, and made two trips to Paris to select the best singers and dancers.] The ill health of Sg Carabaldi having prevented his setting out in time and made it impossible for him to be here at the opening of the theatre. Sg Scheroli, the Tenor who has played the first Buffo with the greatest reputation in Italy, has kindly undertaken to play the part until his arrival. Company: Serious Opera-Millico, Mrs Davies, Scheroli (Tenor), Sga Galli, Sga Lodi. Comic Opera-Carabaldi, Scheroli, Sga Marchetti, Sga Galli, Fochetti, Sga Lodi, Sga Gardi. Poet-Sg Badini. Master of the Dances-Petro. Principal Dancers-Fierville, Pico, Vicenzo Lorenzo, Bocchini, Mariottini, Sga Mimi Faviere, Sga Mazzoni, Sga Nina Faviere, Colomba (from Milan), Mr Canter. Book-Boxkeeper-Yates. [Requests nobility and subscribers to pay up their subscriptions.

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera in 2 acts [1st rime; author unknown]; the music by several eminent composers, under the direction of Bertoni. Books of the Opera [which are entitled Giunio Bruto], with an account of the new Dance, to be had at the Theatre. [Sga Macchierini was from the Opera, Cremona.] Public Advertiser, 14 Jan.: Pacchierotti sang "in a Stile the most superior--superior to any Singer heard in this country since Farinelli--superior to Pacchierotti himself!"

Event Comment: A New Comic Opera in 2 acts; The Music by Sacchini. [Opera in place of I Viaggiatori Felici, announced in Public Advertiser, 1 Mar. Nonini, who is unidentified, was from the Opera, Lisbon.] Public Advertiser, 6 Apr.: To the credit of Sacchini, it is the best Burletta extant. It is in all parts excellent . . . while it amuses, it does not fail equally to interest

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance (entitled The French Opera) is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 73. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 345. The edition of 1674 (appearing in both an English and a French version) states: An Opera, or, a Vocal Representation. First Compos'd by Monsieur P. P. Now put into Musick by Monsieur Grabut, Master of His Majesties Musick. And Acted by the Royall Academy of Musick, At the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. The names of the singers for this production are not known, but it is possible that some of the French singers who appeared in Calisto in the following season, 1674-75, were in London for this production. See Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, pp. 201, 222, and W. J. Lawrence, Early French Players in England, The Elizabethan Playhouse and Other Studies, p. 145. French dancers in the opera were Pecurr [Preux], LeTemps, Shenan, D'muraile. See L. C. 5@140, p. 472, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 355

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but Luttrell's copy (Huntington Library) of the play bears the date of acquisition 3 June [1690, apparently], and the play was advertised in the London Gazette, No 2566, 12-16 June 1690. See Fredson Bowers, A Bibliographical History of the Fletcher-Betterton Play, The Prophetess, 1690, The Library, 5th Series, XVI (1961), 169-75. It seems likely that the opera was first given early in June 1690. An edition of The Vocal and Instrumental Musick of The Prophetess appeared in 1691. See Works of Henry Purcell, Purcell Society, IX. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 42): The Prophetess, or Dioclesian an Opera, Wrote by Mr Betterton; being set out with Coastly Scenes, Machines and Cloaths: The Vocal and Instrumental Musick, done by Mr Purcel; and Dances by Mr Priest; it gratify'd the Expectation of Court and City; and got the Author great Reputation. [See also R. E. Moore, Henry Purcell and the Restoration Theater (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), Chapter V; and E. W. White, Early Theatrical Performances of Purcell's Operas, Theatre Notebook, XIII (1958-59), 44.] The Muses' Mercury (January 1707, pp. 4-5): This prologue was forbidden to be spoken the second Night of the Representation of the Prophetess. Mrs Shadwell was the occasion of its being taken notice of by the Ministry in the last Reign: He happen'd to be at the House on the first Night, and taking the beginning of the Prologue to have a double meaning, and that Meaning to reflect on the Revolution, he told a Gentleman, He would immediately Put a stop to it. When that Gentleman ask'd, Why he wou'd do the Author such a Disservice? He said, Because while Mr Dryden was Poet Laureat, he wou'd never let any Play of his be Acted. Mr Shadwell informed the Secretary of State of it, and representing it in its worst Colours, the Prologue was never Spoken afterwards, and is not printed in Mr Dryden's Works, or his Miscellanies. Cibber, Apology (ed. Lowe, II, 13-14): A Prologue (by Dryden) to the Prophetess was forbid by the Lord Dorset after the first War in Ireland. It must be confess'd that this Prologue had some familiar, metaphorical Sneers at the Revolution itself; and as the Poetry of it was good, the Offence of it was less pardonable

Event Comment: On this date the Czar of Muscovy attended an opera, but the title is not given. Lady Newton, Lyme Letter, 1660-1760, p. 209: On Saturday last the Czar of Muscovy, attended by the Marquis of Carmarthen, and some of his Bayers, was at the King's Playhouse in Drury Lane, and saw 3 acts of the Opera. Luttrell, A Brief Relation, IV, 343, 12 Feb. 1697@8: This evening the czar was at the playhouse in Drury Lane to see an opera

Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the first production is not known, but A Comparison between the Two Stages (1702) (pp. 21-23) implies that this work preceded Rinaldo and Armida (performed at lif probably in November 1698). The Island Princess was not published until 1699 (the Masque being advertised in the Post Boy, 7-9 Feb. 1698@9, and the Opera in the Flying Post, 7-9 March 1698@9). A Comparison between the Two Stages (1702), pp. 21-22: Sullen: The old House have a Bawble offer'd 'em, made out of Fletcher's Island Princess, sometime after alter'd by Mr Tate, and now erected into an Opera by Motteux: The Actors labour at this like so many Galley Slaves at an Oar, they call in the Fiddle, the Voice, the Painter, and the Carpenter to help 'em; and what neither the Poet nor the Player cou'd do, the Mechanick must do for him:...but as I was saying-the Opera now possesses the Stage, and after a hard struggle, at length it prevail'd, and something more than Charges came in every Night: The Quality, who are always Lovers of good Musick, flock hither, and by almost a total revolt from the other House, give this new Life, and set it in some eminency above the New; this was a sad mortification to the old Stagers in Lincolns-Inn-fields. For a poem, The Confederates; or the first Happy Day of the Island Princess, see Poem on Affairs of State, 1703, II, 248-50

Event Comment: Rich's Company. Lady Morley attended this performance: Lady Morley and one in the Box at the Grove an Opera. 10s. See Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Drama, p. 378. It is not known whether this performance was the premiere, but the publication of this work on 16 March 1699@1700 (Post Man, 14-16 March 1699@1700) suggests that if the usual month between premiere and publication intervened for this work, the premiere may have been in mid-February. On the other hand, a letter-see 20 Jan. 1699@1700-may refer to this work. The music was composed by Daniel Purcell. In Songs in the New Opera Called The Grove or Love's Paradice (1700) the following singers are listed: Mrs Irwin, Freeman, The Boy, Hughes, Mrs Lindsey, Pate, and Mrs Shaw. The Preface implies that the opera was a failure: As for the Persons who were not so generous...who thought the Catastrophe was not enough prepar'd, and that the discovery in the last Act was huddled and in confusion, they will now see if what he had writ had been spoken, every thing would have appear's clear and natural, which, to shorten the Entertainment had been before broken and disorder'd

Event Comment: [Text by Giacomo Rossi. Music by George Frederic Handel.] Never Perform'd before. Compos'd by Mr Hendel. Colman's Opera Register: This was not by Subscription but at ye usuall Opera Price of Boxes 8s. Pit 5s. Gallery 2s. 6d. The Scene represented only ye Country of Arcadia. ye Habits were old.--ye Opera Short. [Published as Pastor Fido.

Event Comment: Colman's Opera Register: They perform'd ye Opera Theseus at ye usuall Opera prices

Event Comment: Colman's Opera Register: March 24 they gave out in ye printed Bills they would revive ye Opera Rinaldo, but by some accident it was put off, & no Opera perform'd this Day

Event Comment: A New Opera. [Text by Zeno. Music probably by Caldara, with recitatives by Handel.] Colman's Opera Register: a New Opera Handell it did not take

Event Comment: Whereas Thomas Arne, Jun. Proprietor of English Operas [at lif], has new set to Musick, after the Italian Manner, the Opera of Rosamond, Written by the late Mr Addison, Which is now in Rehearsal....This is to give Notice, that he...hoping to receive Encouragement from the Town, will (notwithstanding his Expences are considerably greater than any of the other English Theatres) Entertain the Town at the following Prices (viz) Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. 6d. And that he will give a private Rehearsal of the said Opera, to such Friends as shall oblige him with a Subscription...at One Guinea, to be paid on Receipt of a Ticket, which will admit the Bearer into the Boxes five Nights

Event Comment: A New Opera. [Text by F. Colman. Music by Handel.] Colman Opera Register: Ariadne in Crete a new Opera & very good & perform'd very often Sigr Carestino sung surprisingly well: a new Eunuch many times perform'd

Event Comment: A New Opera. [By Metastasio. Music by Francis Veracini. For a full account of this opera and opera in general, see Ilchester, Lord Hervey and his Friends, pp. 238-39.] Daily Advertiser, 26 Nov.: Their Majesties, his Royal Highness, and the Princesses [attended] Adriano, compos'd by the famous Signior Veracini, who perform'd the first Fiddle

Event Comment: A New Opera. [Text by Xeno. Music by Broschi.] Lucy Wentworth, 8 Jan.: My mama has been so good to give me leave to goe to the Opera to night with Lady Anne. 'Tis to be a new one call'd Merophe, but the foolish Buffo's are to be left out which I am very glad of, but am sorry they are to have five hundred pound a piece for acting that silly stuf two nights if one may believe Mr Hamilton.The Opera is to be heard but once for he says 'tis the worst that ever was composed.-Wentworth Papers, p. 528. phay The Defeat of Apollo. Rehearsed. DDaily Advertiser, 11 Jan.: The Prologue to The Defeat of Apollo, which, in Compliment to some Gentlemen, was spoke last Saturday at the Rehearsal, encourages the Town to hope for what is new and entertaining. [For additional puffs, see Daily Advertiser, 11 and 12 Jan.

Event Comment: LLord Wentworth to the Earl of Strafford, 19 Jan.: We was at Covent Garden Play House last night, my mother was so good as to treat us with it, and the Dragon of Wantcliff was the farce. I like it vastly and the musick is excessive pretty, and tho it is a burlesque on the operas yet Mr Handel owns he thinks the tunes very well composed....and it has been acted 36 times already and they are always pretty full. The poor operas I doubt go on but badly, for tho every body praises both Cafferielli and the opera yet it has never been full, and if it is not now at first it will be very empty towards the latter end of the winter.--Wentworth Papers, p. 539

Event Comment: A New Opera [a pasticcio, Metastasio text altered by Rolli, form Pergolesi's Olimpiade, 1735 (Loewenberg, Annals of Opera, I, 183)]. Music by Pergolesi, Scarlatti, Lampugnani. L. Leo, F. Leo [libretto in L. C.]. Two of the principal Performers being greatly indispos'd, the Dancers are oblig'd to be deferr'd. Thomas Gray to John Chute, 24 May: Our fifth Opera was the Olimpiade, in which they retain'd most of Pergolesi's Songs & yet 'tis gone already, as if it had been a poor thing of Galuppi's. Two nights did I enjoy it all alone, snugg in a Nook in the Gallery, but found no one in those regions had ever heard of Pergolesi, nay, I heard several affirm it was a Composition of Pescetti's.-Gray, Correspondence, I, 203

Event Comment: A Comic Opera. Tickets at half a Guinea. [Latilla's comic opera; but music for this production by Pietro Auletta. See Loewenberg, Annals of Opera, Cols. 187-88.] Books will be delivered this morning at Mrs Sylvester's (Daily Advertiser)