Italian Opera in Late Eighteenth-Century London: Volume 1: The King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1778-1791

This interdisciplinary study of opera and ballet at the King's Theatre in London attempts to make artistic and financial sense of a distinguished company that went spectacularly bankrupt, leaving debts that were to haunt opera in London for more than 70 years. The theatre burned in 1789; it was rebuilt in defiance of the Lord Chamberlain and hired Haydn as house composer, but was not allowed to stage his last opera. This is the first serious study of the company's repertory, personnel, management, and finances.