# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/English Opera

From volume 1 of the work.
​ENGLISH OPERA. An English opera may be defined as a regular drama, the most important parts of which are set to music and sung, the subordinate parts being spoken as ordinary dialogue, as in German and French operas. It differs from a musical play in the fact that in most cases the musical pieces may be omitted from the play without interrupting the progress of the action, whilst in an opera they form integral and essential portions of it. The exceptions from this rule will be noticed presently.
The earliest instances of the alliance of music with the English drama are probably to be found in the mysteries, or miracle-plays, anciently performed at Coventry, Chester, and other places. As the drama became developed, the association of music with it became closer and more frequent. In several of Shakspere's comedies the songs, etc., are absolutely essential to the piece, and cannot be omitted. Witness particularly 'The Tempest,' 'As You Like It,' 'Twelfth Night,' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' In the masques performed at court, temp. James I and Charles I, a nearer approach was made to the opera—poetry, music, scenery, machinery, and characteristic dresses and decorations being combined in them. Alfonso Ferrabosco junior, Laniere, Coperario, Robert Johnson, Campion, Simon Ives, and William and Henry Lawes, were the principal composers employed. The first approaches towards the revival of dramatic entertainments, which had been suspended by the closing of the theatres during the Civil War, were made during the interregnum through the medium of musical pieces. On March 26, 1653, Shirley's masque, 'Cupid and Death,' with music by Matthew Lock [App. p.628 "in collaboration with Christopher Gibbons"], was performed before the Portuguese ambassador. Three years later Sir William Davenant gave, in a semi-public manner, 'The First Day's Entertainment at Rutland House by Declamations and Musick,' with music by Colman, Cook, H. Lawes, and Hudson. In the prologue it is designated an opera, though not one in any respect. In the following year Davenant produced 'The Siege of Rhodes,' the dialogue of which was given in recitative, which Davenant describes as 'unpractised here, though of great reputation amongst other nations.' This piece, to which a second part was subsequently added, maintained its position for some years, but the music has not, so far as is known, been preserved. 'The Siege of Rhodes' was followed by the production by Davenant in 1658 of 'The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, expressed by instrumental and vocal music, and the art of perspective in scenes,' a performance said to have been not only connived at, but secretly encouraged by Cromwell, who was then supposed to be meditating some designs against the Spaniards. During the four ​or five years which followed the re-opening of the public theatres in 1660, little, beyond occasional repetitions of 'The Siege of Rhodes,' appears to have been done to forward operatic performances on the English stage. The Plague in 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 66 caused a temporary suspension of all theatrical performances, but a step onwards was made in 67 by the production of an adaptation by Davenant and Dryden of Shakspere's 'Tempest' with large additions to the lyric portions. The vocal music of this version was supplied by Pelham Humphrey and John Banister, and the instrumental by Matthew Lock. Soon after the opening of the theatre in Dorset Gardens (1671), the proprietors resorted to opera as the principal attraction. In 1673 they brought out Shadwell's 'Psyche,' of which the author said 'the great desire was to entertain the town with variety of musick, curious dinning, splendid scenes and machines.' Matthew Lock composed the vocal, and Giovanni Baptista Draghi the instrumental music for 'Psyche,' the dances being arranged by St. Andrè, and the scenery painted by Stephenson. In 1675 was 'performed at Mr. Josias Priest's Boarding School at Chelsey by young Gentlewomen' the youthful Henry Purcell's first opera 'Dido and Æneas,' the dialogue in recitative.
In 1677 [App. p.628 "1676"] Charles Davenant's 'Circe' was produced, with the music of John Banister. The Frenchman Grabut's setting of Dryden's 'Albion and Albanius' appeared in 1685 and failed. A few years later the form of English opera had become definitively settled, and in 1690 Purcell reset 'The Tempest,' revised for that purpose by Dryden, and composed the music for 'Dioclesian'—an adaptation by Betterton of Beaumont and Fletcher's 'Prophetess,' 'with alterations and additions after the manner of an opera,' and for Dryden's 'King Arthur.' [App. p.628 "1691"] Two years later he set Dryden's alteration of Sir R. Howard's 'Indian Queen,' and 'The Fairy Queen,' an adaptation of Shakspere's 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' Purcell's contemporaries and immediate successors adhered to the form adopted by him, from which no deviation took place (with the exception of Clayton's setting of Addition's 'Rosamond' in 1707, Boyce's 'Chaplet' 1749, and 'Shepherd's Lottery,' 1751, and Arne's 'Thomas and Sally,' 1760 [App. p.628 "1743"], in all which, and possibly in a few minor pieces, the dialogue was set as recitative) until 1762, when Arne produced his 'Artaxerxes,' set after the Italian manner, with the dialogue wholly in recitative. This departure from the established form produced however no immediate imitators, and Arne's contemporaries and successors, Dibdin, Arnold, Jackson, Linley, Hook, Shield, Storace, Attwood, Braham, Bishop, Barnett, Rooke, etc., adhered for nearly a century to the established model, which, as already remarked, was also that of German opera and of French Opéra Comique.
Efforts have been made at different times and with very chequered results to establish theatres specially devoted to the production of English opera. In 1809 Samuel James Arnold, son of Dr. Arnold, obtained a licence for opening the Lyceum Theatre (which he named the English Opera House) for their performance, and for several years afterwards produced, besides the standard operas, new works by Braham, Horn, M. P. King, Davy, and other native composers. The great success of Weber's 'Der Freischütz,' produced in English in 1824, induced Arnold to change his plan, and for some years afterwards he brought forward principally English versions of German operas, until the success in 1834 of Barnett's 'Mountain Sylph' led him to revert to his original design, and to produce works by Loder, Thomson, and Macfarren. From about 1835 to 1850 successive managers of Drury Lane Theatre devoted much attention to the production of English opera, and many new works by Barnett, Balfe, Wallace, Macfarren, Benedict, and others, were brought out there. In 1856 Miss Louisa Pyne and Mr. W. Harrison embarked in an undertaking for the performance of English operas; and under their management, which lasted about seven years, several new operas by Balfe, Benedict, Wallace, and others, were produced. An 'English Opera Company, Limited,' was formed in 1865, and gave performances at Covent Garden Theatre, but proved unsuccessful. Macfarren's 'Helvellyn' was its sole English production. It should be noted that in this and some other of the later English operas the dialogue is set as recitative, and the general form of the works is that of the modern grand opera. A class of short musical pieces, mostly on subjects of a comic and even farcical character, has sprung into existence of late years, of which Sullivan's 'Cox and Box,' 'Trial by Jury,' and 'Sorcerer,' and Clay's 'Court and Cottage' may be cited as specimens.
[ W. H. H. ]