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: 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: Benefit for Mme LeBrun. Tickets to be had of Mme LeBrun, No. 36, Great Suffolk-street. "In the year 1781, Pacchierotti had been heard so frequently, that his singing was no impediment to conversation, or even to animated narrative and debate; but while the elder Vestris was on the stage, if during a pas seul, any of his admirers forgot themselves so much as to applaud him with their hands, there was an instant check put to his rapture by a choral hu-sh! For those lovers of music who talked the loudest when Pacchierotti was singing a pathetic air, or making an exquisite close, were now thrown into agonies of displeasure, lest the graceful movements du dieu de la dance, or the attention of his votaries, should be disturbed by audible approbation" (Burney, II, 893)

Event Comment: Benefit for Vestris Sen. Tickets to be had of Vestris, No. 2, Hay-market. 2nd ballet: A new Historical Dance [in 3 acts]. The Music entirely new, composed by VanEsch. With new Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. [Morning Chronicle, 15 Apr., printed a letter from Vestris complaining that the manage had not fulfilled his promises as regards the scenery. Vestris outlines what he had planned, and concludes with a description of the "3rd and last act, the Olympus descending, which shall fill the whole stage with clouds, and a Glory in which one shall see Jupiter with his whole Celestial Court; Hercules shall appear there mounting in the Olympus to receive his Apotheosis; the Ballet shall be concluded by a general acclamation of joy and admiration of all the people assembled in the place."

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: Benefit for Vestris Jun. Tickets to be had of Vestris, No. 2, Haymarket

Event Comment: Vestris? Sen being recovered from his indisposition, will appear in the new Ballet

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: [This was Vestris Jun.'s 1st appearance in England.] "Young Vestris astonished John Bull more by his agility than his grace, and some have been known to count the number of times he turned round like a tee-totum. This may be called les tours des jambes-not dancing' (Angelo, II, 320). "The theatre was brimful in expectation of Vestris. At the end of the second act he appeared; but with so much grace, agility, and strength, that the whole audience fell into convulsions of applause: the men thundered; the ladies, forgetting their delicacy and weakness, clapped with such vehemence, that seventeen broke their arms, sixty-nine sprained their wrists, and three cried bravo! bravissimo! so rashly, that they have not been able to utter so much as 'no' since, any more than both Houses of Parliament' (Walpole [17 Dec. 1780], XI, 340-41)

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