Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister Jun. 1st piece [1st time; MD 2, by Samuel Birch]: The Musick by Attwood. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. 2nd piece [1st time; INT 1, by George Colman, ynger. This was the 1st scene from Colman's New Hay at the Old Market, slightly revised; in subsequent seasons it was acted under the title of Sylvester Daggerwood]: By Permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre Royal Hay-Market. 3rd piece: With a Sea Fight. [The playbill assigns Sneer to Palmer, but "The Public are most respectfully informed that Palmer being too ill to perform this Evening, the character of Sneer will be attempted by Benson, who humbly hopes for their usual indulgence" (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill).] Oracle, 4 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Bannister Jun., No. 65, Gower-street, Bedford Square. Receipts: #613 12s. (332.0.6; 45.19.6; 4.3.0; tickets: 231.9.0) (charge: #221 19s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mlle Theodore. Tickets, 10s. 6d. each, to be had of Mlle Theodore, No. 46, Rupert-street, Hay-market

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Banti. A Grand Serious Opera (1st time in this country [1st performed at Vienna, 1767]), accompanied with Chorusses and Dances. The music entirely by Gluck. With entirely new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. Books of the Opera now to be had at the Office of the Theatre, and at Beckett, Bookseller, Pall Mall. Morning Chronicle, 28 Apr.: To be performed exactly in the same manner as it was represented at Paris, under the direction of Gluck himself. Tickets to be had of Mme Banti, No. 3, Hay-market. Bartolozzi having presented Mme Banti, for her night, with a Ticket designed on purpose and engraved by himself, she proposes to give one of the engravings along with each Box and Pit Tickets, separately from the Ticket which will be admitted at the door. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:15 [see 20 June]

Event Comment: Benefit for Roncaglia. Opera: The Music composed by Gretry. Tickets to be had of Roncaglia, No. 2, Hay-market

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Banti. A Serious Opera, 1st time in this country [1st performed at Naples, 1792]; the Music by Paisiello. Tickets to be had of Mme Banti, No. 3, Hay Market

Event Comment: A Serious Opera in 2 acts [1st time; altered by Carlo Francesco Badini from Demetrio, by Metastasio]; the music by Gresnick. 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 6:30. To begin exactly at 7:30 [see 2 June 1787]. Subscriptions are received at Messrs Ransom, Morland and Hammersley's, Bankers, No. 57, Pall-mall, who will deliver the subscription tickets. The Nobility and Gentry, subscribers to the Opera-house, are respectfully intreated to send for them, in order to prevent future mistakes, as nobody can be admitted without producing a ticket. 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 doors in Market-lane for chairs only. [Synopsis of opera in Morning Post, 25 Dec. Mme Perignon and Goyon were from the Opera, Paris.] Receipts: #86 11s. 6d. [These receipts, and those on all other nights throughout the opera season, represent the sale of non-subscription tickets. On this night 400 tickets were delivered to Prendergrass, office-keeper at the Haymarket pit entrance; of these he sold 84 at 10s. 6d. (i.e. #44 2s.). 100 were delivered to Reynolds, office-keeper at the King's Door pit entrance; he sold 6 at 10s. 6d. (i.e. #3 3s.). 300 were delivered to Butler, office-keeper of the 1st Gallery; he sold 112 at 5s. (i.e. #28). 200 were delivered to Snelson, office-keeper of the 2nd Gallery; he sold 70 at 3s. (i.e. #10 10s.). "Difference from Gallery to Pit" (i.e. money received from persons who changed their seats from gallery to pit, 16s. 6d.). The delivery of 1,000 non-subscription tickets to be disposed of was almost invariably the case on every night of the season. If a subscriber's box was released for sale it could be had for 2 guineas (see 6 Feb. 1787).

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A New Farce. [By Mrs Charke.] N.B. The Company are oblig'd to remove from the Hay-Market Theatre to York-Buildings, as being too young a Sett of People to venture at great Expences, without first having merited the Favour of the Town to support them in it; but as we are determin'd to the full Extent of our Power, to endeavour to entertain them, we humbly hope they will accept of our Performances. . . . Charlott Charke. Daily Advertiser, 26 Sept.: We hear that Mrs Charke . . . drew Tears from the whole Audience in her Prologue, which she spoke very pathetically; and the new Farce . . . was very much applauded, notwithstanding the impotent Attempts of several young Clerks to raise a Riot, who were for that purpose properly marshal I'd by the cunning Lawyer their Master: Their rude Behaviour was so extraordinary, that several Gentlemen were provok'd to threaten them with the Discipline of their Canes, upon which they thought proper to desist

Event Comment: Benefit for Mlle Baccelli. Public Advertiser, 1 May: Tickets to be had of Mlle Baccelli, at Micheli's, Hay-market

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Ferrarese. Sga Ferrarese, whose long and grievous Indispositions have been an Obstacle to the Success she ardently wished to obtain, cannot plead any Merit of her own, and only depends for Patronage on that well-known Liberality of a Public, equally disposed to allow for involuntary Deficiencies as to reward even an Attempt to captivate their Benevolence. Tickets, half a guinea each, to be had of Sga Ferrarese, No. 19, Oxendon Street, Hay-market

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Rose. Tickets to be had of Mme Rose, No. 8, Hay-Market. 2nd ballet: 1st time; composed by Didelot in the Erotic Style. The Music entirely new, by Mazzinghi. With new Dresses [by Sestini], Scenery [by Greenwood], and Decorations

Event Comment: Benefit for Didelot. Tickets to be had of Didelot, No. 8, Hay-market. 2nd ballet: 1st time, composed by Didelot, the Music entirely new by Cesare Bossi

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Rose Didelot. Semiramide [advertised in Morning Chronicle, 18 Apr.] cannot be given this evening on account of the necessary Machinery in the new Ballet. Tickets to be had of Mme Rose Didelot, No. 8, Hay-Market

Event Comment: Benefit for Green and Ansell, box-keepers. Tickets delivered for Know Your Own Mind (which is unavoidably obliged to be set aside) will be admitted this Evening. Public Advertiser, 11 May: Tickets to be had of Green, the corner of Norris-street, No. 55, Hay-market; of Ansell, Davies-street, Berkeley-square. Receipts: #277 9s. 6d. (29.12.6; tickets: 247.17.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Caulfield, Miss DeCamp, Miss Tidswell & Miss Heard. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Mr Worthy to Benson but "an apology was made for the absence of Benson...His part of Worthy was read by Whitfield" (Thespian Magazine, July 1793, p. 50).] Tickets delivered for the 8th of June will be admitted. Morning Herald, 24 May: Tickets to be had of Caulfield, No. 8, Dartmouth-street, Westminster; of Miss DeCamp, No. 70, Tottenham-Court-Road; of Miss Tidswell, No. 3, Little Charles-street, St. James's-square; of Miss Heard, No. 13, Panton-street, Hay-market. Receipts: #182 3s. (28.17; 3.5; tickets: 150.1) (charge: #86 8s.)

Event Comment: We play'd the Beggar's Opera & ye Oracle by Children for the Benefit of some distress'd Actors who formerly belong'd to the Theatres. There was #102 in the House, the following Persons receiv'd from it Mr Marshall #23. Mr Morgan #21. Mrs Edgerton #5 5s. Mr Bowman #5 5s. Mr Phenix #10 10s. Mrs Gardner (formerly printer to ye house) #2 2s. N.B.: Mrs Clive refus'd to play her part of Lucy , it was done by Miss Young. New performers engag'd Y: Fletewood, Obrien, Packer, Perry, Miss Glen (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Vestris? Jun. Opera: In 2 acts; the music by Piccinni, and conducted by Bianchi. With new Scenes painted by Novosielski. New Dresses and Decorations both for the Opera and Dances. Mme Simonet will this Evening reassume her station at the Opera House; but as she is not perfectly recovered from the consequences of her late Accidnet, she hopes for the indulgence of the Public, from whom she has already received so many flattering proofs of Approbation. Tickets, 10s. 6d., to be had of Vestris, No. 5, Leicester-street, Leicester-fields. "Last Thursday was the benefit of Vestris and son; the house could not receive and contain the multitudes that presented themselves. Their oblations amounted to fourteen hundred pounds" (Walpole [26 Feb. 1781], XI, 406)

Event Comment: "On 31st Dec. I was with Pleyel in the Pantheon Theatre. They gave La Pastorella Nobile by Guglielmi. Mad. Casentini played the leading role and Lazarini? the primo huomo; the thin Calvesi had l'ultima parte. The opera did not please. Neither did the ballet, even though the great Hilligsburg [sic] danced" (Haydn, 266)

Event Comment: Benefit for Vestris Sen. Opera: In 2 acts; the music by Rauzzini. With new scenes painted by Novosielski. New Dresses and Decorations for both the Opera and Dances. Tickets to be had of Vestris, No. 5, Leicester Street, Leicester Fields. Public Advertiser, 7 Apr.: By desire of the Frequenters of the Opera House books of the ballet of Medee et Jason are sold at the Theatre

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First GallerY 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr Varney at the Stage Door. No Persons to be admitted behind the Scenes, nor any money to be returned after the Curtain is drawn up. [Customary note in bills throughout the season.] House Open'd. Receipts. #160 (Cross)

Event Comment: From the late unfortunate calamity at the King's Theatre [see 16 June], the Subscribers are respectfully acquainted that as many Operas will be represented at this Theatre as can from this Evening to the 11th of July, the day on which most of the Performers' Contracts expire. Mr Gallini humbly requests it may be observed that on account of there not being Boxes enough to accomodate the Subscribers, as at the late Opera House, in order to avoid partiality, no particular Places or Boxes can be allotted to the respective Subscribers. The Entrance into the Theatre will be from Covent-Garden and Hart-street only, the doors from Bow-street will, from necessity, be shut up. Pit and Boxes 10s. 6d. 1st Gallery 5s. 2nd Gallery 3s. "Covent--Garden, on Saturday night, had the honour of entertaining this noble Foreigner--but by some accident they did not agree...The Gallery, only, was filled" (World, 29 June)

Event Comment: The Subscription being at an end for this Season [see 14 June] those Subscribers who wish to retain the use of their Boxes for the following Nights may have them kept by sending their Commands on Tuesdays and Saturdays in the Forenoon to P. MacMahon, No. 77, next door to the Opera House, Haymarket, where Orders (in Writing) for the ensuing Season will be received

Event Comment: Benefit for Vestris. Tickets, 10s. 6d. each, to be had of Vestris, No. 8, Great Suffolk-street, Charing-cross. 2nd ballet: With a great Variety of magnificent Scenery and Decorations executed by Gaetano Marinari. [Synopsis of action in Morning Post, 23 Mar.] "Vestris and Baccelli, tho' incomparable in some parts of the art, are far inferior as actors to Lepicq and Rossi... One evident amendment of the Ballet may be compression and curtailment. As it was, the curtain did not drop till twelve o'clock" (Public Advertiser, 25 Mar.)

Event Comment: The Manager of the Opera House hopes for the Indulgence of the Public, in laying before them the great Complaints which have been made to him, on account of Invoncenience in the Entertainments, arising from the enormous Caps and Bonnets which several Ladies make it a Practice to appear in, within the Pit of this Theatre, excluding thereby that Part which is presentdd from the Dancing in a great Degree. The Manager is therefore under the Necessity of soliciting the Ladies to take the same into their Consideration, and humbly presumes for their Indulgence on the Occasion. Receipts: #246 8s. [non-subscription]