Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Abington. Pit and Boxes will be laid together. Ladies and Gentlemen are most earnestly requested to come early, to prevent Inconvenience in getting to their Places, and to send their Servants to keep them by Four o'clock. "At the close of the entertainment Mrs Abington came forward, and delivered a short poetical address to her fashionable auditory [written by Maurice Morgann (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1797, p. 263)], apposite to her feelings on the present occasion" (Morning Herald, 11 Feb.). "The character [of Scrub] throughout was well conceived, and executed with a sprightliness and degree of humour that kept the house in a continual roar of laughter" (Public Advertiser, 11 Feb.) "Mrs Abington's voice was in its usual tone; her manners and deportment were inattentive and torpid, rather than active and interesting" (Morning Post, 11 Feb.). "With all her endeavours to give new points to the character, she entirely failed. Her appearance en culottes, so preposterously padded, exceeded nature. Her gestures to look comical could not get the least hold of the audience, though they had seen her before in men's clothes, when playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice, where her figure, dressed as a lawyer in his gown, gave effect to her excellent delivery on mercy, and the audience had been always delighted. But this leu de benefice, comparatively speaking, was disgusting and absurd as she dressed the character ... However, I have heard it originated in a bet she had previously made" (Henry Angelo, Reminiscenes, 11, 281-82). Receipts: #406 13s. 6d. (249/9/6; 1/9/0; tickets: 155/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: A Comic Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Venice, 1778]); the music entirely new by Salieri [with additions by Anfossi, Sacchini, Paisiello, Mazzoni, J. Mazzinghi]

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Venice Preserv'd, announced on playbill of 30 Dec. 1786.] Receipts: #222 4s. (220.0; 2.4)

Event Comment: The Merchant of Venice and Love a-la-Mode [both advertised on playbill of 19 Dec.] are obliged to be deferred on Account of the Indisposition of Macklin. Receipts: #145 5s. 6d. (139.17.0; 5.8.6)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Mainpiece in place of The Merchant of Venice; afterpiece of Love a-la-Mode, both advertised on playbill of 12 Feb.] Receipts: #315 15s. (304.2; 1.13)

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Venice, 1781]); the music by Sarti, under the direction of Mazzinghi. "At length in the spring arrived the celebrated Marchesi, whose fame had long reached this country, and who had been extolled to such a degree that impatience and expectation were raised to the highest pitch; and on the first night of his appearance the theatre was not only crowed to the utmost in every part, but on the rising of the curtain, the stage was so full of spectators that it was some time before order and silence could be obtained, and with some difficulty that Marchesi, who was to open the opera, could make his way before the audience. Marchesi was at this time a very well-looking young man, of good figure, and graceful deportment. His acting was spirited and expressive: his vocal powers were very great, his voice of extensive compass, but a little inclined to be thick (Mount-Edgcumbe, 66-67). Receipts: #437 15s. 6d., i.e. 560 tickets delivered to Prendergrass [see 8 Dec. 1787], who sold 558; 110 to Toosey, who sold 86; 400 to Butler, who sold 285; 236 to Snelson, who sold 204. Total non-subscription tickets sold: 1133

Event Comment: A New Comic Opera composed by Paisiello [but not recorded in any list of his operatic works]; under the direction of Mazzinghi. [Originally ententitled Le Vane Gelosie, this was 1st performed at Naples in 1790. Its libretto, by G. B. Lorenzi, was re-set in 1793 by G. Astarita, and performed at Venice as Le Fallaci Apparenze. The characters in all these versions are identical. See E. Faustini-Fasini, Opere Teatrali di Paisiello, 1940, 137-38, and Morning Herald, 2 Apr. 1792.

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Venice, 1790]); the music by Anfossi, with 2 additional songs in the 2nd act by Mme Banti, the 1st composed by Piccinni, the last by Naumann. With entire new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations

Event Comment: A New Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Venice, 1792]), accompanied with Chorusses; the music entirely new, composed [i.e. revised] here by Bianchi. With entirely new Scenes, designed by Hamilton and executed by Walmsley, Dresses and Decorations

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Morichelli. Afterpiece: An Heroic Entertainment in one act, consisting of Songs and Dances with Chorusses, and never performed upon any public Stage, but composed for the private Theatre of a Nobleman at Venice [in 1789]. The words by Count Alexander Pepoli; the music by Cimadoro; the pantomime and dances by Noverre. Tickets to be had of Mme Morichelli, No. 127, Pall Mall