| Contents |
v. 1. The King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1778-1791 -- v. 2. The Pantheon Opera and its aftermath, 1789-1795. |
| Contents |
v. 1. The Italian opera establishment in London. The old opera establishment ; Views of opera, 1750-1790 ; London style and practice in the 1780s ; The King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1705-1789 ; The outlook in 1778 -- Ownership, management, and finances. The Sheridan-Harris administration, 1778-1781 ; The first Taylor regime, 1781-1783 ; Interregnum: Gallini versus Taylor's trustees, 1783-1785 ; Gallini in command, 1785-1790 ; A summary of opera company finances, 1778-1789 -- Daily operations and the production process. The structure of the company ; Recruitment and salaries ; House management ; Scenery, properties, and costumes ; Lighting and special effects ; Some notes on performance practice -- Opera under Sheridan (1778-1781). The musical establishment under Sheridan ; The 1777-78 season: the co-managers' swan song ; The 1778-79 season: Pacchierotti's début ; The 1779-80 season: Le Texier's downfall ; The 1780-81 season: Ansani versus Roncaglia -- Opera under Taylor and his trustees (1781-1785). The 1781 season: Sacchini's 'disgrace' ; The 1782-83 season: Taylor's Annus horribilis ; The 1783-84 season: Gallini versus Taylor's trustees ; The 1784-85 season: artistic limbo -- Opera under Gallini (1785-1790). The 1785-86 season: Gallini versus the Lord Chamberlain ; The 1786-87 season: The Storaces' return ; The 1787-88: Marchesi arrives, Storace sues ; The 1788-89 season: apogee and immolation ; The 1789-90 season: at the Little Haymarket -- The ballet. The dance company ; The Ballet d'action comes to London, 1778-1781 ; Noverre in London, 1781-82 ; Lepicq and Dauberval, 1782-1785 ; The Gallini regime, 1785-1790 ; The state of ballet in London in 1790 -- Fire and rebuilding, 1789-1791. The destruction of the old theatre ; Competing plans, summer-autumn 1789 ; Financing the new theatre, January-April 1790 ; The Leicester Square Theatre patent hearings, April 1790 ; The battle over the site, July-December 1790 ; The new king's theatre, Haymarket -- Haydn and the opening of the new theatre, spring 1791. The failure of merger negotiations ; Salisbury and the licensing dispute ; 'Rehearsals' and 'entertainments' at the new theatre ; Haydn's L'anima del filosofo ; Ballet at the new theatre ; The new theatre in limbo -- Appendices. Chancery materials on opera, 1778-1790 ; William Taylor's creditors ; Joseph Hayling's lighting and tinkering accounts ; Noverre's scenario for Rinaldo and Armida (1782). |
| Contents |
v. 2. Part I. The pantheon and the history of opera in London, 1789-1795. The establishment of the pantheon opera. The contest to re-establish Italian opera ; The plan for a royal opera-house in Leicester Square ; The pantheon plan -- The pantheon experiment, 1790-91. The new opera-house ; Singers and dancers ; Opera and ballet repertoire ; Financial problems and new merger negotiations ; The downfall of Robert Bray O'Reilly -- The fire and the Little Haymarket season, 1791-92. Negotiations towards an opera settlement ; Company reorganization under Trancart ; The fire of 14 January 1792 ; The Little Haymarket season, spring 1792 -- The return of the King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1792-1795. The opera settlement of August 1792 ; The season of 1792-93 ; The season of 1793-94 ; The season of 1794-95 ; New arrangements for 1795-96 -- Part II. The pantheon enterprise: architecture, production, repertoire, and finances. The architecture of the pantheon opera-house. The original pantheon and the architectural evidence ; The auditorium ; The stage and the files ; Construction details and the alterations of 1791-92 ; Cost of conversion ; Theory of design -- Departmental organization, treasurer, house servants, and tradesmen. The structure of the company ; The treasurer's office ; Front-of-house servants ; Behind-the-scenes house servants ; Tradesmen and outside services -- The production process. Scenery ; Costumes ; Properties ; Lighting ; Prompting and rehearsals -- The opera. The company ; Production process and sources ; The 1790-91 season: opera seria v. opera buffa ; The 1791-92 season: opera buffa at the Little Haymarket ; The pantheon's artistic achievements -- The ballet. Dauberval and his company ; Repertoire in 1790-91 ; Reorganization and the repertoire in 1791-92 ; Dauberval's achievement -- Finances. Preliminary and construction expenses ; The season of 1790-91 ; The season of 1791-92 ; The pantheon's finances in perspective -- Appendices. Personnel and tradesmen ; Selected contracts ; The pantheon scene inventory ; The wardrobe book ; Sources of La locanda ; Subscribers ; Chancery and exchequer lawsuits concerning the opera ; A short catalogue of the Bedford opera papers. |
| Abstract |
This interdisciplinary study attempts to make sense of what has long been regarded as a chaotic period in the history of opera in London. In 1778, R.B. Sheridan acquired the King's Theatre and its resident opera company in what we would now call a leveraged buy-out, plunging the opera into escalating debts that were to haunt it into the 1840s. The 1780s and early 1790s were a stormy but exciting era: the company hired some of the foremost singers and dancers in Europe; ballet d'action came to London, with Noverre himself as ballet master; the company employed such composers as Sacchini, Anfossi, Cherubini and ultimately Haydn; it went bankrupt and carried on through years of wrangling in chancery; the King's Theatre burned down in 1789 and was rebuilt and re-opened in defiance of the Lord Chamberlain's refusal to license the new building. Drawing on libretti and scores, ballet scenarios, pamphlets, scattered manuscripts, legal records, architectural drawings, newspapers, and other sources, the authors reconstruct the history of the company and its shifting artistic policies, analyzing opera and ballet repertory, performers, production circumstances, finances, and managerial infighting. |
| General note | Vol. 2 by Judith Milhous, Gabriella Dideriksen, and Robert D. Hume. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 94036462 |
| ISBN | 0198161662 |
| ISBN | 9780198161660 |
| ISBN | 0198167164 |
| ISBN | 9780198167167 |
