Event Comment: This Pantomime is a Medley patch up from several old ones was very well receive'd & applauded (Hopkins Diary). With New Music and an Overture. Receipts: #222 1s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: On account of the death of Sg Onofreo the Managers are oblig'd to postpone the new Serious Opera in order to give Sg Trebbi time to study the Tenor part

Event Comment: Benefit for Woodward. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Afterpiece : A New Farce [by Joseph Reed] from a Story in Gil Blas, never perform'd (Larpent MS 409). Tickets deliver'd for the Double Gallant will be taken. [The Westminster Magazine for March lists Alguazil-Thompson; Alphonso-Lewis; Inis-$Mrs Willems, tells the story for the play, and concludes: "The story is professedly taken from Gil Blas, and although we cannot pay the Dramatist any great compliment either on his diction, the management of his fable, the sublimity of his allusions, or in a word, on the excellence of his tout ensemble; it would be unjust were we not to say, that the farce provok'd most hearty peals of laughter; it may therefore serve as well as any other such Bartholomew-fair-like droll for a heel-piece to the performance on a benefit night."

Event Comment: Lyric Ode (never performed) "On the Witches, Fairies, and Aerial Beings in Shakespeare. The Music entirely New." [The Westminster Magazine for March commented: "This poem is said to be written by a young gentleman of Oxford, and has many strokes of genius and inagination in it. The music, we hear, is composed by Mr Linley Jr, who has (since his return from Italy) been a student under that most excellent musician Dr Boyce. This composition must be allowed to be an extraordinary effort of genius in so young a man. The Fugue of the overture is masterly. The song of 'There in old Arden's inmost shade,' is well suited to the scene described by the poet....But what we think most deserving of praise is the power our young composer has shown in the chorusses....From the general and sincere applause with which the Ode was received, we may venture to pronounce, that if Mr Linley Jr pursues his studies, he will one day stand foremost in the list of modern composers."

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister. Afrerpiece: Never performed there, a Musical Entertainment, which went off with great Applause the New Scene of the Regatta was properly introduc'd in the Farce (Hopkins Diary). Rec'd Stopages #10 4s. 6d.; Mr Burges one quarter's rent (land tax deducted) #4 4s.; Paid Mr Grist by order of Mr Garrick #10; Mr Johnston's Music bill #14 3s. 6d.; Mr Burges (bricklayer) #52 2s. 6d. Receipts: #82 3s. 6d. Charges: #66 18s. Profits to Bannister: #15 5s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Sestini. A new Comic Opera [usually entitled L'Isola di Alcina]; the Music by Gazzaniga. Public Advertiser, 27 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Sga Sestini, No. 8, Great Suffolk-street, Hay-market

Event Comment: By Authority [of the Lord Chamberlain]. Benefit for the Westminster New Lying-In Hospital

Event Comment: [Beginning with 2 June the new ballet was entitled L'Amour en Vendange.

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera [1st time; SER 3, by Pietro Metastasio; a pasticcio]. The Music by Bertoni and other eminent Masters [Myslivecek, Monza, Sarti]. 'Pacchierotti, who on this night made his 1st appearance in London, was] conscious that the chief delight of singing, and his own supreme excellence, lay in touching expression, and exquisite pathos...As an actor, with many disadvantages of person, for he was tall and awkward in his figure, and his features were plain, he was nevertheless forcible and impressive: for he felt warmly, had excellent judgment, and was an enthusiast in his profession. His recitative was inimitably fine, so that even those who did not understand the language could not fail to comprehend, from his countenance, voice, and action, every sentiment he expressed" (Mount-Edgcumbe, pp.24-25)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of The Liverpool Prize, announced on playbill of 20 Sept.] Receipts: #203 0s. 6d. (202.13.0; 0.7.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Altered by Garrick from Shakespeare; not acted these 10 years [not acted since 26 Apr. 1765]. With new Dresses and Decorations. Afterpiece: With a Sea Fight and Procession. [These were included in all subsequent performances.] Receipts: #188 8s. (151.2.0; 33.6.6; 3.19.6)

Event Comment: By Authority of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Stewart. Mainpiece: New Dresses and Decorations. [Authors of Prologues unknown.] The doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin precisely at 6:00

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time at a public theatre; C 3, by Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, 1st acted privately at the Town-Hall, Newbury, 6 Apr. 1780. Text (G. Riley, 1781) assigns no parts. Prologue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Epilogue by Joseph Jekyll (see text)]: With new Dresses, &c. "The Prologue [the first 30 lines and the concluding couplet of which were used by Sheridan as the Prologue to Pizarro (see dl, 24 May 1799)] was so much admired that at the request of the Duchess of Devonshire and several other of the nobility it was respoken after the piece; but as King was absent from the theatre, it was delivered by Palmer" (Town and Country Magazine, May 1780, p. 23 ). "The chief singularity was that [Lady Craven] went to it herself the second night, in form; sat in the middle of the front row of the stage-box, much dressed, with a profusion of white bugles and plumes, to receive the public homage due to her sex and loveliness. The Duchess of Richmond, Lady Harcourt,...Mrs Damer, Lord Craven,...and I were with her. It was amazing to see so young a woman entirely possess herself-but there is such an integrity and frankness in her consciousness of her own beauty and talents, that she speaks of them with a naivete as if she had no property in them, but only wore them as gifts of the gods. Lord Craven on the contrary was quite agitated by his fondness for her and with impatience at the bad performance of the actors, which was wretched indeed, yet the address of the plot, which is the chief merit of the piece, and some lively pencilling carried it off very well, though Parsons murdered the Scotch lord, and Mrs Robinson (who is supposed to be the favourite of the Prince of Wales) thought on nothing but her own charms, or him. There is a very good though endless prologue written by Sheridan and spoken in perfection by King, which was encored (an entire novelty) the first night: and an epilogue that I liked still better and which was full as well delivered by Mrs Abington, written by Mr. Jekyl. The audience, though very civil, missed a fair opportunity of being gallant, for in one of those ----logues, I forget which, the noble authoress was mentioned, and they did not applaud as they ought to have done, especially when she condescended to avow her pretty child and was there looking so very pretty...Yet Lady Craven's tranquillity had nothing displeasing;...and it was tempered by her infinite good nature, which made her make excuses for the actors instead of being provoked at them" (Walpole [28 May 1780], XI, 178-80). Public Advertiser, 14 July 1781: This Day at Noon will be published The Miniature Picture (price not listed). Receipts: #144 9s. (94.9; 48.3; 1.17)

Event Comment: The Characters all new dressed. [Prologue by Frederick Pilon (London Chronicle, 2 Aug.). The Lecture, as here altered, was published by G. Kearsley, 1785.

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2 (?), author unknown, based on the anonymous Harlequin's Jacket. MS not in Larpent; not published; synopsis of action in Public Advertiser, 4 Jan.]: With New Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. Half Price will be taken as usual. Receipts: #220 18s. (182/16/0; 37/19/6; 0/2/6)

Event Comment: [In afterpiece the playbill assigns no parts, but "In the new Pantomime last Night, Pleasure was performed by Miss Morris (for whom it was originally intended, but kindly supplied by Mrs Morton [see cast on 26 Dec] during her illness)" (Public Advertiser, 17 Jan.).] Receipts: #225 14s. (220/9; 5/5)

Event Comment: Benefit for Noverre. Tickets, half-a-guinea each, to be had of Noverre, No. 40, Great Marlborough-street. 1st ballet: The Music entirely new, composed by Le Brun. [Scenario(Milan, 1774) lists the parts: Guillaume, Raymond, Alphonse, Renaud, Adele, Alise, Beatrix, Isabellc, Eleonore. In 2nd ballet Jason to be danced by Gardel (Morning Herald, n Apr.); the overture by Gluck, and rest of the music by Noferi (Public Advertiser, 12 Apr.).]

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera [1st time; ser 2, by Giovanni de Gamerra]: the Music selected from the most eminent Composers [Sarti, Anfossi, Bertoni, Bianchi], under the direction of Bertoni. "The airs which Pacchierotti has chosen for himself have served to disclose in that excellent performer such powers as we had not yet discovered, uniting into one the delicate Soprano to the more majestic and manly strains of the most accomplished Contralto" (Public Advertiser, 23 Nov.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 26 Dec. 1776. Mrs Robinson, who was from the Portsmouth theatre, is identified by MS annotation on Kemble playbill]. Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2, by Frances Brooke, based on Les Moissonneurs, by Charles Simon Favart]: The new Music and overture composed, and the Selected Airs compiled [from Paxton and Sacchini], by Shield. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Account-Book, 30 June 1784: Paid Shield for composing Rosina #100. Receipts: #158 18s. 6d. (154/5/6; 4/13/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Allegranri. Opera [1st time; com 2, author unknown] : The Music entirely new by Anfossi. Tickets to be had of Sga Allegranri, No. 232, Piccadilly

Event Comment: Books of the Ballets may be had at the Theatre, price 6d. Public Advertiser, 8 Dec.: As to the Dances, such exquisite perfection was never seen in England before, because there certainly never was before seen such a band of transcendent Dancers simultaneously subsisting on the same Stage . . . They were almost equally admirable. Thus, if Vestris and Theodore were most surprising, Lepicq and Rossi were more touching, Slingsby more exhibiting

Event Comment: A New Comic Opera in 2 acts; The Music [by Lodovico Caruso] under the direction of Anfossi

Event Comment: A Serious Opera in 2 Acts; the Music entirely new by Anfossi; interspersed with Grand Chorusses and Dances incidental to the Opera.

Event Comment: By Authority of the Lord Chamberlain. At the request of several of the Scotch Nobility. Benefit for Raeburn. Mainpiece: In its original state, as it was written by Allan Ramsay in 1724 [recte 1725]. The Characters to be entirely new dressed. The Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin at 6:00. No persons to be admitted behind the scenes, nor any money returned after the curtain is drawn up. Ladies are requested to send their servants by Five to keep places. Tickets to be had of Raeburn, No. 4, Gloucester-court, St. James's; of Walker, the Globe, Pall-mall; of Mackintosh, the George, East Harding-street, Shoe-lane; of Watson, the Fleece, Little Windmill-street (being the original Scotch house); of Mrs Shaw, the St. Andrew, near the Armitage-bridge, Wapping

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Harriet Horncastle Hook]: The Overture and Music entirely new, composed by Hook. Books of the Songs, &c. to be had at the Theatre. "After four Hours sitting at Hamlet, and Half an Hour more at Miss Hamoir's Ballet, we were cheered indeed by the Overture to the Double Disguise" (Public Advertiser, 11 Mar.). Morning Chronicle, 20 Mar. 1784: This Day is published The Double Disguise (1s.). Receipts: #167 12s. 6d. (116/8/0; 50/19/6; 0/5/0)