Event Comment: [Text by
N. F. Haym. Music by
G. F. Handel.] By Command Pit and Boxes at half a guinea. Gallery 5s. At 6:30 p.m. When
the Tickets are dispos'd of, No Persons will be admitted for Money.
The Diary of Mary Countess Cowper, p. 154: At Night,
Radamistus, a fine Opera of
Handel's Making.
The King there with his Ladies.
The Prince in
the Stage-box. Great Crowd.
Mainwaring, Handel, pp. 98-99: If
the persons who are now living, and who were present at that performance may be credited,
the applause it received was almost as extravagant as his
Agrippina had excited;
the crowds and tumults of
the house at
Venice were hardly equal to those at
London. In so splendid and fashionable an assembly of Ladies (to
the excellence of
their taste we must impute it)
there was no shadow of form, or ceremony, scarce inoeed any appearance of order or regularity, politeness, or decency. Many, who had forc'd
their way into
the house with an impetuosity but ill-suited to
their rank and sex, actually Fainted through
the heat and closeness of it. Several Gentlemen were turned back, who had offered forty shillings for a seat in
the gallery, after having despaired of getting any in
the pit or boxes
Performances
Mainpiece Title: Radamistus