Event Comment: [Sga Mattei announced her undertaking direction of Italian Serious Operas and Burlettas for the ensuing winter, promised the performance of them for the best advantage of the public, and listed the members of the company she had engaged: For Serious Operas: herself, Philippo Elisi (the first singer in Italy), Gaetano Quilice (tenor), Angiola Calori (second woman), Giovanni Sorbelloni (second man), and a new singer for the lowest character. For the Burlettas: Sga Paganini (the first female character and the foremost in Italy), Gaetano Quilice (the first man), Sga Eleardi (second woman), Paganini (second man), Signor N. N. (third man), Angiola Calori and Sorbelloni (to perform the serious parts in the Burlettas). Dancers: Mlle Asselin (first woman dancer), Gheradi (first dancer of the men, and ballet master), famed both in the serious and comic as well as for his invention as for exercises in dancing. There will also be other comic dancers, and figures both for the serious operas and burlettas.

Event Comment: A Burletta, Benefit for Sg & Sga Paganini, [Who] being desirous of returning to Italy...take this Opportunity to express their most grateful Sense of the many Favours with which they have been honoured in this Kingdom; and being willing that the Necessitous should share in that Bounty which they owe more to the Generosity of the English Nation than to their own Merits, they have allotted a fourth part of the Profits which may arise from the above Burletta (free from all Expense whatever) towards the carrying on and extending the Utility of the Asylum or House of Refuge for Female Orphans...and another Part of the aforesaid Profits will be given towards relieving old Signor Cataneo, who, during forty Years was useful to the Operas, but is now in extreme Distress; and the Manager, who is at the Expence of this Benefit, has chearfully consented to the Disposition here mentioned. As it is intended to apply the whole Profits which may arise from letting out the Servants Gallery [at 2s. 6d. each person] for the Benefit of the Asylum, over and above what was before alloted to it, 'tis humbly hoped that the Nobility, Gentry, etc. will not take it amiss if their Servants are not admitted that Night, as has been the Practice at this Theatre on Occasions of Charity. Tickets will delivered out for this Benefit, this day at the Opera Office, and signed by Mr Crawford, and all Monies given for Tickets above their usual Price, is to be shared in the Charity abovementioned. Tickets delivered for 23 March will be taken

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera, music by several celebrated Composers. With new Cloaths, new Decorations, and new Dances. Pit and Boxes put together, and no Persons to be admitted without Tickets, which will be delivered that Day, at half a Guinea each. Gallery 5s. By Their Majesties Command no Persons whatsoever to be admitted behind the Scenes, nor into the Orchestra. Gallery, Pit and Boxes will be opened at Five; To begin at 6:30. [Prices, terms of admission, and time repeated in subsequent bills.] Subscription Money to be paid to Andrew Drummond and Co. Bankers, or to Mr Crawford, Treasurer, for Silver t ickets. Signor Giardini the principal serious singer has arrived, and serious opera will begin as soon as possible (Public Advertiser). [Signora Mattei was again the promoter of Operas this season; Crawford the Treasurer.

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera. The Music composed by several celebrated Composers. All Boxes put together, and no Persons admitted without Tickets, which will be delivered this Day at the Office at Half a Guinea each; First Gallery 5s. Second Gallery 3s. By His Majesties Command no Person whatsoever to be admitted behind the Scenes or into the Orchestra. 6:30 p.m. Vivant Rex et Regina. [Repeated in all bills.] [A pasticchio similar to La Schiava (The Humorists). See Nicoll, III, 361. Advertisement for the company of performers at the Opera had been given in the Public Advertiser three months earlier, 6 August: 'Drummond, Vincent and Gordon,Proprietors and Managers of the Opera at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket beg leave to announce that they have engaged the best Company that could be got in Italy...and are expected in London this month. The company are as follows: Serious-the celebrated Guarducci, first man; Signora Aunuciati, first woman; Savoi, second man; Miss Young, second woman; Grassi, Signora Piatti, third woman. Comic-Lovattini, first man, tenor; Signora Zamperini, first woman; Savoi, first man, serious; Miss Young, first woman; Signor Moriggi (the old man) bass; Signora Piatti, second woman; Zamperini second man; Signora Gibbetti [Gibelli in the Gazetteer] third woman."

Event Comment: The First Night of the Subscription. A new comic opera composed by Signor Buranello. Pit and Boxes together, and no Persons admitted without Tickets, which will be deliver'd this Day at the Office, at 10s. 6d. First Gallery 5s. Second Gallery 3s. The Gallery, Pit and Boxes will be open'd at Five. By their Majesties Command no persons whatsoever to be admitted behind the Scenes or into the Orchestra. 6:30 p.m. Vivant Rex et Regina. [Repeated in the bills.] The Subscription is for 50 Nights only

Event Comment: [Indisposition of a principal performer postpones Il Signor Dottore.

Event Comment: Music by Signor Galluppi

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never Performed There. On account of the Additional Airs, contracted into 3 Acts. [Public Advertiser, 30 Dec., notes that the principal omission was the conspiracy of Alonzo, Antonio, &c., and that the Masque in Act IV was removed to the concluding scene of the play.] With New Dresses, Scenery and Decorations. The Music by Purcell, John Christopher? Smith, Dr Arne and Fisher. [In afterpiece the playbill retains Delpini as Pierrot, but "[Hull] made an apology for the illness of Delpini, telling the audience that the Signor had hurt himself so much the preceding evening in performing the part of Pierrot that he could not come out of his room; the managers therefore hoped that the audience would accept of Wewitzer in the character" (Morning Chronicle, 28 Dec.). The playbill also adds Wewitzer as the Gardener; this part was perhaps omitted.] Paid Enderby, Oil Merchant, #258 17s. Receipts: #245 18s. (244.15; 1.3)

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister. [Kean's 1st appearance was at this theatre, 22 Mar.] 2nd piece: The Music compiled by Dr Pepusch. 4th piece: A Ballet Tragi-Comique, composed by Signor Novestris [i.e. George Colman, the elder]. Gazetteer, 23 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Bannister, No. 7, Suffolk-street, Charing-cross

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera [1st time; COM 2], written by Charles Francis Badini, and set to music by Pasquale Anfossi. "The Author has . . . struck out ideas fit to excite the utmost powers of harmony. We do not think that he has been sufficiently seconded by Signor Anfossi. The music evidently labours under a tedious monotony" (General Advertiser, 22 May)

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera [1st time; COM 2, librettist unknown]; the Music composed by Storace. "Signor Storace does not appear to have studied that art [of music] much in Italy; for he has entirely deviated from the usual plan of Italian authors...The overture anneunces entirely a French author, and the finales are in the German style of Gluck, loaded with harsh, terrifying music of trumpeting and drumming" (Public Advertiser, 6 Mar.). Receipts: !162 [non-subscription]

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Joseph Berington, altered from the same, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. MS: Larpent MS 1041; not published; synopsis of plot in Morning Herald, 30 Oct. It has hitherto been assumed that this play was altered by Benjamin Thompson, but "This Tragedy was translated from the German by the Rev. Jos. Berrington [sic]" (Kemble Mem.). Dr. Berington's authorship is also referred to in London Chronicle, 30 Oct. 1794. Thompson's translation was published by Vernor and Hood in 1800. Prologue by Richard Cumberland. Epilogue by George Colman, ynger (London Chronicle, 29 Oct.)]: The Dresses, Scenes and Decorations are entirely new. The Scenery in the four first Acts is the work of Signor Barzago and of his Brother; and in the fifth of Greenwood, by whom also a new Frontispiece is designed and executed. [Miss Miller, who had appeared the previous season as a chorus singer, is identified in European Magazine, Nov. 1794, p. 363.] The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 20 Apr. 1795]. Powell: Emilia Galotti rehearsed at 10. The New Frontispiece and Stage doors were exhibited for the first Time this Evening. Receipts: #317 19s. 6d. (270.8.6; 46.5.0; 1.6.0)

Event Comment: "[Allegranti] in an evil hour came again to England, and reappeared in Cimarosa's Matrimonio Segreto. Never was there a more pitiable attempt: she had scarcely a thread of voice remaining, nor the power to sing a note in tune: her figure and acting were equally altered for the worse, and after a few nights she was obliged to retire, and quit the stage altogether...But she was at least remembered to have had a voice, and was looked upon only with compassion" (Mount-Edgcumbe, 39-40). "The opera of last night was also enriched by the first appearance, on any stage, of a young lady, a daughter of Signor Rovedino...She was received with the warmest applause" (Morning Chronicle, 10 Apr.)

Event Comment: The United Company. There is uncertainty concerning this date; it appears on Luttrell's copy (Huntington Library) of the separately printed Prologue and Epilogue, and the date may represent the time of his purchase rather than a date of performance. The Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 141-45. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 39-40): All the preceding Plays, being the chief that were Acted in Dorset-Garden, from November 1671, to the Year 1682; at which time the Patentees of each Company United Patents; and by so Incorporating the Duke's Company were made the King's Company, and immediately remov'd to the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane. Upon this Union, Mr Hart being the Heart of the Company under Mr Killigrew's Patent never Acted more, by reason of his Malady; being Afflicted with the Stone and Gravel, of which he Dy'd some time after: Having a Sallary of 40 Shillings a Week to the Day of his Death. But the Remnant of that Company; as, Major Mohun, Mr Cartwright, Mr Kynaston, Mr Griffin, Mr Goodman, Mr Duke Watson, Mr Powel, Sr, Mr Wiltshire, Mrs Corey, Mrs Bowtell, Mrs Cook, Mrs Montfort. [Joined the new company]. Note, now Mr Monfort and Mr Carlile, were grown to the Maturity of good Actors. The mixt Company then Reviv'd the several old and Modern Plays, that were the Propriety of Mr Killigrew, as Rule a Wife, and have a Wife: Mr Betterton Acting Michael Perez; Don Leon, Mr Smith, Cacofogo, Mr Cartwright: Margaretta, Mrs Barry: Estiphania, Mrs Cook. Next, @The Scornful Lady.@The Plain Dealer.@The Mock Astrologer.@The Jovial Crew.@The Beggars Bush.@Bartholomew-Fair.@The Moor of Venice.@Rollo.@The Humorous Lieutenant.@The Double Marriage.@ With divers others. George Powell, Preface to The Treacherous Brothers (1690): The Time was, upon the uniting of the Two Theatres, that the Reviveing of the old stock of Plays, so ingrost the study of the House, that the Poets lay dorment; and a new Play cou'd hardly get admittance, amongst the more precious pieces of Antiquity, that then waited to walk the Stage. Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 95-96): I shall content myself with telling you that Mohun and Hart now growing old [for, above thirty Years before this Time, they had severally born the King's Commission of Major and Captain in the Civil Wars), and the younger Actors, as Goodman, Clark, and others, being impatient to get into their Parts, and growing intractable, the Audiences too of both Houses then falling off, the Patentees of each, by the King's Advice, which perhaps amounted to a Command, united their Interests and both Companies into one, exclusive of all others in the Year 1682. This Union was, however, so much in favour of the Duke's Company, that Hart left the Stage upon it, and Mohun survived not long after

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Festing. Tickets 5s. At 7 p.m

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Lally

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Christian Festing. Tickets 5s. 7 p.m

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Festing. At Mr Topham's Great Room. Tickets 5s. At 7 p.m

Event Comment: By Desire. [In a letter to the Daily Journal, 13 Feb., Michael Poitier thanks the public for the applause given him on 8 Feb., and refers to the earlier disturbance there occasioned by his failure to appear with Mlle Roland. He states that she was indisposed and that he sent a message to that effect to the manager.]

Event Comment: Benefit the Author. [In Daily Journal, 24 Feb., Michael Poitier publishes several notices relating to his failure to dance on 7 Dec. 1734.]

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Lally. By Command of Her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia. Tickets to be had at Mr Lally's House in Southampton-Row, Bloomsbury. Two Rows of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Lally. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Lally. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. [Tickets at Lally's House in Southampton-Row.

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Lally. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Two Rows of the Pit will be laid into Boxes. [Tickets at Lally's House in Southampton-Row, Bloomsbury.

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Lally. At the Desire of several Ladies of Qualit(. Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq; Poet-Laureat. [Two Rows of Pit and part of Stage formed into Side-Boxes. Tickets at Lally's House in Southampton-Row, Bloomsbury.