Event Comment: Peregrine Bertie to the
Countess of Rutland, 11 Feb. 1685@6: To-day was the
French opera. The
King and Queen were there, the musicke was indeed very fine, but all the dresses the most wretched I ever saw; 'twas acted by none but
French. A Saturday the
Court goes to another play, to take their leaves of those vanitys till after
Lent (
HMC, 12th Report, Appendix,
Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 104). [This performance is on the
L. C. list 5@147, p. 125: The King & Queene & a Box for ye Maydes of honor at ye
French Opera [the charge for the royal box was increased from #20 to #25 on this occasion].
W. J. Lawrence conjectured that this
French opera was
Cadmus et Hermione and that
Jacques Rousseau, a scene painter of
Paris, provided the decor. See W. J. Lawrence,
The French opera in London; A Riddle of 1686,
TLS, 28 March 1936, p. 268