Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: So I to White Hall, and there all the evening on the Queen's side; and it being a most summer-like day, and a fine warm evening, the Italians come in a barge under the leads, before the Queen's drawing-room; and so the Queen and ladies went out, and heard them, for almost an hour; and it was indeed very good together; but yet there was but one voice that alone did appear considerable, and that was Seignor Joanni [Giovanni Baptista Draghi?]

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but Luttrell purchased his copies of the separately printed Prologue and Epilogue on 15 May 1682 (Huntington Library); hence, the premiere occurred before that date. The Prologue also refers to the feast which the Whigs attempted to hold at Haberdashers' Hall on 21 April 1682 but were restrained, pointing toward late April as a probable date for the first performance. The separately printed Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 77-79. A song, In Phyllis all vile jests are met, with music by Giovanni Draghi, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Fourth Book, 1683. Langbaine (English Dramatic Poets, 1691, p. 19): This Play had the luck to be well receiv'd in the Town

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Newdigate newsletters, 15 Aug. 1682: Thursday last being acted a play called the Tragedy of Romulus att the Dukes Theatre & the Epilogue spoken by the Lady Slingsby & written by Mrs Behn having reflected on ye Duke of Monmouth, ye Lord Chamberlaine thereupon has order[ed] them both in Custody to answer th[at] affront for ye same (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 81). See also True Protestant Mercury, 12-16 Aug. 1682, for essentially the same statement. The Prologue and Epilogue were printed separately, and Luttrell' copy (Huntington Library) bears his acquisition date of 8 Aug. 1682. They are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 132-34. The separately printed Prologue states that Mrs Behn also wrote it. A song, Where art thou god of love, the music by Giovanni Draghi, is in Theater of Music, The Third Book, 1686

Event Comment: A New Opera. [Text by Giovanni Alberto Ristori. Music arranged by Handel. Apparently not published.

Event Comment: A New Opera. [Music by Giovanni Battist Pescetti.

Event Comment: A New Serenata. [Music by Giovanni Battista Pescetti.] Tickets half a guinea. 6 p.m. Mrs Pendarves to Lady Throckmorton, 28 Nov.: The concerts begin next Saturday at the Haymarket. Caristini sings, Peschetti composes; the house is made up into little boxes, like the playhouses abroad; Lord Middlesex is the chief undertaker, and I believe it will prove to his cost, for concerts will not do. --Delany, Autobiography, II, 66

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: By Command of Their Majesties. This day publish'd Price 1s. Alexander's Feast; or, The Power of Music; written by Dryden. To which is added the Coronation Anthem as performed this evening at Covent Garden. Set by Mr Handel. This Day publish'd Price 5s. sewed. A Treatise on the Art of Dancing, by Giovanni Andrea Gallini, Director of the Dances at the Royal Theatre in the Haymarket

Event Comment: Opera [1st time; Past 3, author unknown]. The music [to Part I] composed by Giovanni Battista? Bianchi, [to Part II by] Rauzzini, [to Part III by] Giordani. With Grand Chorusses. With new Decorations devised and painted by Novosielski, and new Dresses. The Side-boards, with a cold Collation and all sorts of Wines, at 12 o'clock. The Performance under the direction of Vestris Sen., and to conclude with a Ball. Tickets, at 2 Guineas each, are ready to be delivered at the Office in Union-court, where Boxes may be taken. No Masks will be admitted. The Doors will be opened at 9:00, and the Performance to begin at 10:00. Books of the Performance will be given out (gratis) at the Theatre. Morning Herald, 7 June: The Omaggio, or homage paid by the vassals and tenants to their Lord, is naturally calculated to give free scope to lively, and sentimental music. In the former stile Bianchi and Giardini [sic] were equally succesful; and in the latter Rauzzini was surprisingly great, both as composer and performer...Slingsby would, in our opinion, have come out with as great a share of applause as the best of them, having to go through an English dance in his own stile, but by some unaccountable accident...the music-band stopped short when he was in the very climax of his exertions. The scenes are in the rural stile, with the addition of natural trees, flowering shrubs, &c., set in the neatest order...The company did not begin to move till about four, and by five the rooms were cleared. Public Advertiser, 7 June: The Vestris' gave incontrovertible proof of the variety of their powers...They did more, they shewed what this country had never seen-the possibility of presenting to the eye a large and extensive stage filled with dancers all in motion at the same time

Event Comment: A Serious Opera [1st time; ser 3, by Giovanni de Gamerra; a pasticcio, with music by Anfossi, Gluck, Alessandri, Martini, Sarti, Giordani]; the Music under the Direction of Anfossi. With new Scenes, painted by Novosielski, new Dresses and Decorations, both for the Opera and Dances. By their Majesties Command, no Person can be admitted behind the Scenes. Pit 10s. 6d. 1st Gallery 5s. 2nd Gallery 3s. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin exactly at 7:00 [same throughout season]. The Subscribers' Tickets are ready to be delivered at the Office in Unionstreet. To prevent Inconvenience to the Nobility and Gentry in getting to their Carriages, they are most respectfully intreated to give positive orders to their servants to set down and take up with their Horses Heads towards Pall-Mall. The Door in Market-lane for Chairs only

Event Comment: Benefit for Babbini. A Serious Opera [1st time; ser 3, by Giovanni de Gamerra]; the Music entirely new by Michele Mortellari. Public Advertiser, 23 May: Tickets to be had of Babbini, No. 17, Great Pulteney-street, Goldensquare

Event Comment: Opera [1st time; COM 3, by Carlo Francesco Badini, based on The Duenna, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan]: the Music entirely new by Bertoni

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera [1st time; COM 2, by Carlo Francesco Badini]. The Music entirely new, composed by Anfossi

Event Comment: A Serious Opera, altered [by Carlo Francesco Badini] from Metastasio; the Music by Anfossi [a pasticcio, with additions by Sacchini, Piccinni, Gazzaniga, Schuster, Mortellari]. [This was Mme Mara's 1st appearance on the English operatic stage. She had 1st sung in London, in concerts at the Pantheon, in 1784.] "It is with the utmost astonishment we remarked that she unites the talents of an excellent actress with the merit of the most enchanting singer that ever perhaps came forth on any stage" (Morning Herald, 15 Feb.). "Mme Mara delivered the recitatives with a force of expression that produced the strongest interest of character, and the woes of Dido as powerfully engaged the sympathy, as the rich and varied melody of the airs, the admiration of the audience" (Morning Chronicle, 16 Feb.). "The [second] opera was Didone, a pasticcio, for which Mara had made a very judicious selection of songs, introducing four of very different characters, by Sacchini, Piccinni, and other composers, all of which were so much and so equally admired, that two were encored every night, each of them receiving that mark of approbation in its turn. Mara's talents as a singer (for she was no actress and had a bad person for the stage) were of the very first order. Her voice, clear, sweet, distinct, was sufficiently powerful, though rather thin, and its agility and flexibility rendered her a most excellent bravura singer, in which style she was unrivalled" (Mount-Edgcumbe, 59)