This study is based in part on Saskia Willaert's M.A. thesis, ‘The First Italian Comic Operas in London, 1748-1750’ (King's College, London, 1990). Richard G. King wishes to thank the Ministry of Education of the Netherlands for a grant which made his part in the research and writing of this article possible.Google Scholar

1 For an account of the management under Lord Middlesex from 1739 to 1745, see Taylor, Carole, ‘From Losses to Lawsuit: Patronage of the Italian Opera in London by Lord Middlesex, 1739–45’, Music and Letters, 68 (1987), 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, ed. Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (London, 1937–83) (henceforth Walpole's Correspondence), xxxvii, 116–17.Google Scholar

3 The Muscovita, Lucia Panichi, was said to be the mistress of Lord Middlesex. See Walpole's Correspondence, xvii, 191, n. 16.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., 191.Google Scholar

5 See Taylor, , ‘From Losses to Lawsuit’, 3, 15–16.Google Scholar

6 Walpole's Correspondence, xviii, 225–6.Google Scholar

7 Taylor, ‘From Losses to Lawsuit’, 1.Google Scholar

8 Walpole's Correspondence, xvii, 256.Google Scholar

9 Letter to Mann, 25 December 1742, ibid., xviii, 131.Google Scholar

10 Letter to Mann, 5 December 1746, ibid., xix, 342.Google Scholar

11 Throughout this article, we have relied for chronology (first performances, cast lists and so forth) on Claudio Sartori, ‘Primo tentativo di catalogo unico dei libretti italiani a stampa fino all'anno 1800’, unpublished card file (Milan, 1980); now being published under the title 1 libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800 (Cuneo, 1990-). Henceforth, when an opera title and date are given the source is Sartori unless otherwise indicated. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Prof. Sartori for generously providing access to his indexes for the impresario Crosa and the singer Laschi.Google Scholar

12 See Robert and Norma Weaver, A Chronology of Music in the Florentine Theater (Detroit, 1978), 263–4.Google Scholar

13 Walpole's Correspondence, xvii, 140–1.Google Scholar

14 Ibid., 191.Google Scholar

15 See Taylor, , ‘From Losses to Lawsuits’, 25.Google Scholar

16 See Marino, Ugo, I prigionieri di Pinerolo (Pinerolo, 1979), 243.Google Scholar

17 Crosa's two seasons in London have also been documented by Sybil Rosenfeld, ‘Foreign Theatrical Companies in Great Britain in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, The Society for Theatre Research: Pamphlet Series, 4 (London, 1955), 32–5.Google Scholar

18 Four of the operas Crosa and his troupe performed in London (La finta cameriera, Orazio, La maestra and Madama Ciana) were later to play a role in the famous querelle des bouffons, when they were brought to Paris in 1752–4 by the impresario Eustachio Bambini. See Lazarevich, Gordana, ‘Pergolesi and the Guerre des bouffons’, Guerre des bouffons 2 (1988), 195–203.Google Scholar

19 For a complete list of the London performances of Crosa's troupe, see the Appendix to this article.Google Scholar

20 Weaver, A Chronology of Music, 46.Google Scholar

21 See Walker, Frank, ‘Orazio: The History of a Pasticcio’, Musical Quarterly, 38 (1952), 369–83.Google Scholar

22 ‘Quelle invention! Quelle harmonie! Quelle excellente plaisanterie musicale! Je porterai cet opéra en France.’ Letter dated 24 November 1739 in Charles de Brosses, Lettres familières: Ecrites d'Italie en 1739 et 1740, ed. Romain Colomb (Paris, 1885), i, 347.Google Scholar

23 See MacMillan, Dougald, Catalogue of the Larpent Plays in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1939).Google Scholar

24 Burney, Charles, A General History of Music (London, 1776–89); ed. Frank Mercer (New York, 1957), ii, 848.Google Scholar

25 Heartz, Daniel, ‘The Creation of the Buffo Finale in Italian Opera’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 104 (1977–8), 67–78 (pp. 67–8).Google Scholar

26 Burney, A General History, ii, 848n.Google Scholar

27 Larpent MS no. 790 (Huntington Library, San Marino).Google Scholar

28 No libretto for this London performance has surfaced.Google Scholar

29 Heartz, “The Creation of the Buffo Finale', 68.Google Scholar

30 Ibid.Google Scholar

31 Memoirs of Carlo Goldoni, trans. John Black, ed. William A. Drake (New York and London, 1926), 246.Google Scholar

32 Burney, A General History, ii, 848n.Google Scholar

33 Walpole's Correspondence, xx, 49; Burney, A General History, ii, 848.Google Scholar

34 PRO KB 122/235 roll 56, f. 1.Google Scholar

35 See Walpole's letter to Mann, 5 November 1741 (cited above, n. 4).Google Scholar

36 PRO KB 122/235 roll 56, f. 1^v.Google Scholar

37 Burney, A General History, ii, 848.Google Scholar

38 Walpole's Correspondence, xx, 4.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., 41.Google Scholar

40 Burney, A General History, ii, 848.Google Scholar

41 Burney, Charles, ‘Laschi’, The Cyclopaedia: Or Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences and Literature, ed. Abraham Rees, xx (London, 1819).Google Scholar

42 Walpole's Correspondence, xx, 4, 41.Google Scholar

43 Liebrecht, Henri, Histoire du théâtre français à Bruxelles au XVIIe et X Ville siècles (Paris, 1923), 180.Google Scholar

44 British Library, 906.d.3. Sartori suggests a date of 1755 for this Don Calascione libretto (I libretti italiani, ii, 387), but it seems unlikely that Crosa could have assembled exactly the same troupe to travel to Brussels in 1755.Google Scholar

45 The libretto of the 1749 Brussels Orazio is reproduced in Theatre de La Haye, ou nouveau recueil choisi et meslé des meilleures piéces du théatre francais et italien, i (The Hague, 1760).Google Scholar

46 The title ‘Virtuoso di Camera di … Carlo’ is not found in the available cast lists of the first London season, but does follow Laschi's name in the libretto of Il trionfo di Camilla, produced during the second season (March 1750). This provides further evidence that the Brussels Orazio dates from 1749.Google Scholar

47 John Rosselli has noted that this kind of advertising by singers only gradually disappeared over the course of the eighteenth century. See ‘From Princely Service to the Open Market: Singers of Italian Opera and their Patrons’, Cambridge Opera Journal, 1 (1989), 1–32 (pp. 14–16).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48 Rosenfeld, ‘Foreign Theatrical Companies’, 34.Google Scholar

49 Letter from Cibber to Victor, dated 21 November 1749, quoted in Benjamin Victor, The History of the Theatres of London and Dublin from the Year 1730 to the Present Time (London, 1761), ii, 210.Google Scholar

50 See, for example, Burney, A General History, ii, 848–9; The London Stage 1660–1800, pt IV, ed. George Winchester Stone Jr (Carbondale, Illinois, 1962), Ixvii.Google Scholar

51 This remark is found as a footnote to a song entitled No Italian Strollers.Google Scholar

52 Rosenfeld, ‘Foreign Theatrical Companies’, 34.Google Scholar

53 For a performance of Il negligente, Crosa charged 8s. for a seat in the boxes and pit, and 4s. for a place in the gallery. ‘Common prices’ at the Little Theatre were boxes 4s., pit 2s. 6d. and gallery 1s. 6d. (See The London Stage, pt IV, 27, 41, 154 and so forth).Google Scholar

54 Benefits in the first season had been offered to Crosa, Catherine Roland, Charles and Jane Poitier (the dance troupe), Mellini and Querzoli. Laschi, one of the principal singers, had not enjoyed a benefit, but at least his wife had had the privilege.Google Scholar

55 PRO LC 5/161, f. 301.Google Scholar

56 ‘We hear that His Majesty has been graciously pleased to order the licence to the French strollers to be withdrawn, in order to prevent any more disturbances of ill blood among his subjects’ (The London Evening Post, 21 December 1749).Google Scholar

57 See also Stephens, Frederic George et al., Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Division I: Political and Personal Satires, III/i (London, 1877), no. 3043.Google Scholar

58 Burney, A General History, ii, 849.Google Scholar

59 PRO KB 122/235 roll 56, f. 2^v.Google Scholar

60 Burney, A General History, ii, 849.Google Scholar

61 Ibid.Google Scholar

62 PRO KB 122/236 roll 140. The London Stage lists a Mrs Freeman as singer and actress in 1744.Google Scholar

63 PRO CP 40/3573 roll 501.Google Scholar

64 Frasi's benefit, announced on 7 March in the press, took place on 3 April; Laschi's benefit, announced on 22 March, occurred only five days later, on 27 March. See The General Advertiser, 7 and 22 March 1750.Google Scholar

65 PRO PRIS 10/179, ff. 26^v–27^v. A Day Rule is a rule of court permitting a prisoner in custody to leave prison during the day. See Tomlins, Thomas Edlyne, The Law Dictionary Explaining the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the British Law (London, 1820), ‘Day Rule’. Crosa was charged a daily sum of 4s. 6d. for this privilege.Google Scholar

66 PRO PRIS 10/158, f. 4^v.Google Scholar

67 Burney, A General History, ii, 844.Google Scholar

68 See The London Evening Post, 22–4 February 1750.Google Scholar

69 Burney, A General History, ii, 849.Google Scholar

70 Memoirs of Carlo Goldoni, 255.Google Scholar

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72 Burney, A General History, ii, 848n.Google Scholar

73 Ibid., 680, 684.Google Scholar

74 Brown, John, Letters upon the Poetry and Music of the Italian Opera (London, 1789), 115.Google Scholar

75 As noted above, La finta cameriera was performed in London under the title Don Calascione.Google Scholar

76 ‘Op heeden zal zekerlyk also Sr. Laschi weder hersteld is, vertoont werden L'ORAZIO’ (Amsterdamse Courant, 15 August 1750).Google Scholar

77 On 3, 6, 7 and 9 October they performed on the same evenings as Crosa (see the Amsterdamse Courant, 28 September to 8 October 1750).Google Scholar

78 Advertisements for the ‘Muziek Collegie’ appeared in the Amsterdamse Courant on 24 October, 5 and 7 November.Google Scholar

79 British Library, Egerton 3413 (correspondence of various English diplomats), ff. 167, 169.Google Scholar

80 The Hague, Gemeentearchief, Archive 372, no. 2936, document 160.Google Scholar

81 This was probably Henry Gibbs, who offered rewards for Crosa in the newspapers in May (see above).Google Scholar

82 ‘… de Italiense Musikanten van de Opera van Londen, alom bekend door het groot genoegen in's Hage, Leyden’ ('s-Gravenhaegse Courant, 3 August 1750).Google Scholar

83 Alfred Loewenberg lists performances of Orazio and Gismondo at Leiden in 1752. He may perhaps be referring to performances by Crosa's troupe in 1750 (Annals of Opera 1597–1940, 3rd edn, Totowa, N.J., 1978, cols. 188, 191).Google Scholar

84 A General History, ii, 850. As noted above, a Mrs Freeman performed in 1744, and The London Stage lists a dancer named Shawford who appeared frequently between May 1748 and May 1753 (his first appearance is dated December 1740). The name of Angelo de Angelis is familiar, but as a creditor, not a debtor, of Crosa (see above).Google Scholar

85 See Walpole's Correspondence, xx, 4, n. 10.Google Scholar

86 Weaver, A Chronology of Music, 56.Google Scholar

87 See Lucia Zambelli and Francesco Tei, A teatro con i Lorena: Feste, personaggi e luoghi scenici della Firenza granducale (Florence, 1987), 34.Google Scholar

88 Il finto soldato, Cocomero theatre, Florence.Google Scholar

89 Weaver, A Chronology of Music, 55–6.Google Scholar

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91 ‘… che nulla mi resta da suggerire. Il Direttore [Penici] è il più bravo attore del mondo.’ See Goldoni's preface to Il cavaliere e la dama, Tutte le opere di Carlo Goldoni, ed. Giuseppe Ortolani, ii (Verona, 1954), 628; also cited in Irène Mamczarz, Les intermèdes comiques italiens au X Ville siècle (Paris, 1972), 309. The preface was written for the Paperini edition of Goldoni's works and published in Florence in 1753 (Goldoni, Tutte le opere, ii, 1225).Google Scholar

92 ‘Je vis Penici avec plaisir; étant vieux et ne pouvant plus chanter, il jouait la comédie, et en bon acteur, ce qui est rare; car les chanteurs, hommes et femmes, se fiant sur la durée de leur voix, négligent l'art de la scène, et d'ordinaire un simple rhume en fait très médiocres sujets.’ Mémoires de J. Casanova de Seingalt, ed. Raoul Vèze, vii (Paris, 1928), 136.Google Scholar

93 Gl'impostori, San Moisè theatre.Google Scholar

94 Le cantatrici. Il mercato di Malmantile, Regio ducal theatre.Google Scholar

95 See The London Stage, pt IV, 602–3.Google Scholar

96 For example, he performed there in January 1765, December 1766, December 1767 (in Gluck's Alceste) and January 1770. See Rudolph Angermüller, Vom Kaiser zum Sklavin: Personen in Mozarts Opern (Salzburg, 1989), 20.Google Scholar

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99 Il disertore, La fiera di Venezia, Demofoonte, Attalo re di Bitinta.Google Scholar

100 For Bassi, see the Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti: Le biografie, ed. Alberto Basso (Turin, 1985), i, 348. Kelly took acting lessons from Laschi, whom he described as ‘the greatest actor of [his] day’. See Reminiscences of Michael Kelly of the King's Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Including a Period of Nearly Haif a Century; with Original Anecdotes of Many Distinguished Persons (London, 1826), i, 108.Google Scholar

101 ‘Laschi sucht nie auf Kosten der Natur das Händeklatschen des Parterrs. Er ist ein Schauspieler von grosser Einsicht: seine Scherze sind fein, anpassend, nie herbeygeschleppt, sondern immer aus der Sache selbst geschöpft: sein Anstand ist frey; er ist – wenn sich die beiden Worte ja einigermassen vergesellschaften lassen – ein edler Buffo. Er spielt noch die Liebhaber, aber man bemitleidet ihn über den Verlust einiger Saiten an seiner Stimme, der ihm zuweilen Misstöne abzwingt. Man sieht es an der Anstrengung seiner Gesichts, und dem Blinken seiner Augen, wie sehr er selbst diesen Verlust fühlet, den er durch Verwechslung der Töne und Coloraturen zu ersetzen suchet. Seine körperliche Ausübung, und seine tiefen Kenntnisse, sowohl in der Schauspielkunst als der Musik, versichern ihm indessen noch itzt einen Platz unter den vortrefflichsten Theatralpersonen Italiens: und was das Ohr bey seinen Arien zuweilen leidet, darüber entschädigt er durch seine Recitative, worein er alle Wahrheit und Ausdruck zu legen weis.’ Joseph von Sonnenfels, Briefe über die Wienerische Schaubühne, ed. Hilde Haider-Pregler (Graz, 1988), 70–1. Cited with slight variants in Angermüller, Vom Kaiser zum Sklavin, 20.Google Scholar

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109 The three are first found together in Florence in autumn 1742 performing Orazio and La libertà nociva.Google Scholar

110 For a richly documented study of the Mingottis' travels and repertory, see Erich H. Müller, Angelo und Pietro Mingotti: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Oper im X VIII. Jahrhundert (Dresden, 1917).Google Scholar

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112 A folder of newspaper clippings in the Amsterdam municipal archive partially documents their sojourn there (shelf number T734.126, ‘Kunsten – Opera algemeen‘). See also A Biographical Dictionary, ed. Highfill, iv, 245–6; Burney, A General History, ii, 864–5.Google Scholar

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