Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted there before. New Decorations incident to the play (
General Advertiser). Advanc'd towards purchasing
Mr Smollet's copy of
Alceste #100 (Account Book).
Handel remov'd to
Covent Garden, and entered into some engagements with
Rich, the particulars of which are not known, save that in discharge of a debt that he had contracted with him in consequence thereof, he some years after set to music an
English opera entitled Alceste, written by Dr Smollet, and for which Rich was at great expense in a set of scenes painted by
Servandoni; but it was never performed (
Hawkins,
General History of Music, V, 324). [For additional information on Alceste, see
Deutsch, Handel, pp. 679-81. See also cg 14 Feb. 1749.] Receipts: #155 18s. 6d