Italian Opera Librettos in the Larpent Collection

I: Italian Opera and the Larpent Collection

The King’s Theatre, usually referred to loosely as the Opera House, or even just The Opera, was London’s venue for elite opera and dance. ‘Elite’ does not, of course, mean aristocratic; its audience, which certainly had aristocratic elements, included interested opera-goers and connoisseurs.[1] Built in 1705 by and to the design of the architect and playwright, John Vanbrugh (bapt. 1664–1726), the theatre interior was altered in 1709, 1778 and 1782, but it remained more or less in its original form until it was destroyed by fire in 1789.[2] It was replaced briefly by the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, with opera under Giovanni Gallini (1728-1805), and then also by the Pantheon Opera, until in turn that theatre burned down in 1792.[3] The King’s, now rebuilt, then again became the venue for Italian opera; there was also a small brief season at a new Pantheon Theatre in 1809. It remained the premier house for this type of entertainment until the refurbished Covent Garden opened as the Royal Italian Opera in 1847.[4]

For much of its life, the Opera was, however, licensed only as a venue for Italian opera, and only annually. This had been the case since the early years of the century when the repeated re-arrangement of drama, opera and music in between the King’s and Drury Lane, which, in the end, gave the former institution the upper hand in the opera stakes.[5] And as with the patent theatre, the Opera was required to submit texts of its proposed offerings to the Lord Chamberlain’s office for licensing, and it is those copies which form part of the Larpent holdings. The earliest Italian opera in the collection is Serse, La 8, the text of the satirical opera of 1738 by Handel (1685–1759). The last is Zelmira, La 2398, a comic libretto by Andrea Tottola (d 1831), and set by Gioachino Rossini (1792 –1868) who conducted the London premiere on 24 January 1824; between these dates lie some 250 opera librettos of all types and genres. However, at least some of these details are potentially misleading; Serse, La 8, is not a manuscript sent to the Lord Chamberlain, but the printed version, a text that was sold in the theatre and at the booksellers at the time of the performances. The first Italian opera manuscript libretto in the collection is that for Rossane, La 41, a version of Handel’s Alessandro; some half dozen others are also printed versions. It is unclear whether all these texts were ‘licensing copies’; some are dated by Larpent, others not, and it does seem as if some may have been added to the collection at a later date. However, there are some exceptions. One is the 1754 Bertoldo, Bertoldino, e Cacasenno alla corte del re Alboino, La 116, a text printed in Amsterdam, but which was given a manuscript title page with the annotation: ‘S^r This Burletta is Intended to be perform’d at the Theatre Royal in Cov^t Garden w^th the permission of his Grace the Duke of Grafton. I am S^r Your most Obed^thumble Sev^t Jn^o Rich. Dec^r 6 1754’. As the note suggests, the work was a playhouse show, but was performed in Italian.

Let us put some numbers on the Italian operas. The totals below come from the London aria project;[6] the goals of that project have been discussed in ‘A Movable Feast: the Aria in the Italian Libretto in London before 1800’.[7] At the time of writing, there are 1185 librettos that can be associated with Italian opera performances in London in the period 1737-1824. This total includes 262 Larpent copies, and some further 265 supposititious publications; the latter are cases in which a printed libretto does not survive but where there are grounds for believing that the text was printed. The evidence for supposititious publication is various: it includes the advertised availability of a libretto; the presence of textual alterations that were made in such a way that the printing of a new libretto was inevitable; and cast changes which occurred between seasons.