Event Comment: In order to give Time to the Serious Singers to get ready in Trajetta's New Opera [Germondo (see 21 Jan. 1777)], La Fraschetana will be performed on Saturday, on which Account there will be no Opera To-morrow

Event Comment: Public Advertiser, 22 Mar.: At the particular Desire of the Nobility and Gentry, the Subscribers to this Theatre, on account of the young Prince's Christening there will be no Opera to-morrow. This delay will prove very convenient for compleating the great Preparations which in every respect are necessary to present [the new] Opera [see 25 Mar.] in all the Magnificence it requires. [Prince Octavius, 8th son of George III, was christened on 23 Mar.

Event Comment: Public Advertiser, 25 Feb.: For the better Accommodation of the Subscribers to the Opera, the painted Room and Staire-case will be lighted, and the door from thence to Market-lane open after the Opera for Ladies Chairs only. The Regulation relative to the servants, by desire of many of the Subscribers, is laid aside [see 27 Nov. 1779]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme LeBrun. Tickets to be had of Mme LeBrun, No. 36, Great Suffolk-street. "In the year 1781, Pacchierotti had been heard so frequently, that his singing was no impediment to conversation, or even to animated narrative and debate; but while the elder Vestris was on the stage, if during a pas seul, any of his admirers forgot themselves so much as to applaud him with their hands, there was an instant check put to his rapture by a choral hu-sh! For those lovers of music who talked the loudest when Pacchierotti was singing a pathetic air, or making an exquisite close, were now thrown into agonies of displeasure, lest the graceful movements du dieu de la dance, or the attention of his votaries, should be disturbed by audible approbation" (Burney, II, 893)

Event Comment: "I have been once to the Opera to hear the Allegranti, whom I like, and who is almost as much in fashion as Vestris the dancer was last year: the applause to her is rather greater. Pacchierotti is much admired too, and thedancers are a capital set" (Walpole [7 Feb. 1782], xii, 156)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Opera in place of Ezio, announced in Public Advertiser, 8 Feb.]

Event Comment: Sga Allegranti continuing so much indisposed as to be unable to perform, the Comic Opera [I Viaggiatori Felici, announced in Public Advertiser, 15 Feb.] is unavoidably deferred

Event Comment: Benefit for Pacchierotti. A Serious Opera; the Music by Bertoni. Tickets to be had of Pacchierotti, No. 8, Great Marybone-street, Cavendish-square

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera in 3 acts (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Munich, 1771]); the Music entirely new, composed by Rauzzini

Event Comment: Public Advertiser, 3 Apr.: The Entertainment of last night was, on account of Allegranti's Illness, changed from the Comic Opera [La Contad ina in Corte, announced in Public Advertiser, 1 Apr.] to the Serious

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera in 2 acts [1st time, by Carlo Francesco Badini]; the music composed by [Tommaso] Giordani

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Being the Sequel to The Beggar's Opera, written by Gay. Books of the Opera to be had at the Theatre. [Miss Hooke is identified on playbill of 18 June.] Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years

Event Comment: Benefit for the Singers and Dancers. Opera: A Comic Opera in 2 acts; the Music entirely new by Anfossi

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Charles Stuart and John O'Keene. Text 1st published, unauthorized, Dublin: For the Booksellers [1783]. Prologue by George Colman, the elder (O'Keeffe, I, 140)]: With a new Overture by Dr Arnold. With Italian, French, Irish, Scotch, Welsh and English

Event Comment: A Serious Opera (SER 3); originally written by Metastasio; the Music selected from the most eminent Composers, under the Direction of Cherubini. [Babbini was from the Opera, Rome.]

Event Comment: A Serious Opera, altered [by Carlo Francesco Badini] from Metastasio; the Music by Anfossi [a pasticcio, with additions by Sacchini, Piccinni, Gazzaniga, Schuster, Mortellari]. [This was Mme Mara's 1st appearance on the English operatic stage. She had 1st sung in London, in concerts at the Pantheon, in 1784.] "It is with the utmost astonishment we remarked that she unites the talents of an excellent actress with the merit of the most enchanting singer that ever perhaps came forth on any stage" (Morning Herald, 15 Feb.). "Mme Mara delivered the recitatives with a force of expression that produced the strongest interest of character, and the woes of Dido as powerfully engaged the sympathy, as the rich and varied melody of the airs, the admiration of the audience" (Morning Chronicle, 16 Feb.). "The [second] opera was Didone, a pasticcio, for which Mara had made a very judicious selection of songs, introducing four of very different characters, by Sacchini, Piccinni, and other composers, all of which were so much and so equally admired, that two were encored every night, each of them receiving that mark of approbation in its turn. Mara's talents as a singer (for she was no actress and had a bad person for the stage) were of the very first order. Her voice, clear, sweet, distinct, was sufficiently powerful, though rather thin, and its agility and flexibility rendered her a most excellent bravura singer, in which style she was unrivalled" (Mount-Edgcumbe, 59)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 2nd piece [1st time; O 1, by John Wolcot. Larpent MS 770; not published]: Being a Translation from the French Opera of that name [Nina; ou, La Folle par Amour, by Benoit Joseph Marsollier des Vivetieres], now performing at Paris with universal applause. With the original Music [by Nicolas Dalayrac, adapted by William Shield and William Thomas Parke. Two other versions of this opera, both unacted, were published this year: one anonymous, and one by George Monck Berkeley]. Receipts: #300 8s. 6d. (150.0.0; 2.18.0; tickets: 147.10.6)

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera; the music by Paisiello. Under the direction of Storace. [Sga Storace was from the Opera, Vienna.] Morelli "was an actor such as the Italian stage has seldom witnessed. He was, I used to think, in his prime, quite upon a par with King of Drury Lane Theatre. Like him, he was distinguished for neat articulation, and an unremitting attention to the business of the whole stage" (Boaden, Kemble, I, 449). Receipts: #165 19s. 6d. [non-subscription]

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera (never performed [in London; 1st performed at Florence, 1778]); the Music by Gazzaniga [with additions by Storace, Posi, Trachi (World, 11 May)], under the direction of Mazzinghi. At the London production of La Vendemmia, the duet (Count-Susanna) Crudel perche finora from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro was sung by Benucci and Anna Storace; probably the first piece of any Mozart opera which was heard on the London stage" (Loewenberg, 364). [In June 1789 it was published by Birchall and Andrews, as "A favorite duett...sung in...La Vendemmia...by Sg Benucci and Sga Storace". See Illustration

Event Comment: Benefit for Wrighten, prompter. 3rd piece [1st time; M I, author unknown. Music selected from Dr Arne. MS: Larpent 833 (which notes, "The words partly new and partly compiled. In Commemoration of the Restoration of His Majesty's Health"); not published]. Public Advertiser, 18 May: Tickets to be had of Wrighten, No. 6, Little Russel Street. Tickets delivered for the 20th will be admitted. Receipts: #278 17s. 6d. (48.2.0; 13.17.0; 0.17.6; tickets: 216.1.0) (charge: #106 13s. 7d.)

Event Comment: [The playbill announces The Beggar's Opera (in place of The Maid of the Mill, advertised on playbill of 3 Dec., but "deferred on account of the Indisposition of Johnstone") and The Touchstone. But "Mrs Billington was taken ill & The Merry Wives of Windsor with The Deserter & Devil on Two Sticks were substituted for B. Opera & Touchstone" (MS annotation on BM bill: cg, Vol. VII). World, 5 Dec., states that The Mayor of Garratt was the afterpiece, but the Account-Book lists The Devil upon Two Sticks.] Receipts: #126 18s. (115.0.6; 11.17.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Sestini. Tickets to be had of Sga Sestini at No. 17, Mount-street, Berkely-square. Tickets delivered for the 19th inst. will be admitted