| Thomas and Sally | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Thomas Arne | |
 John Beard and Charlotte Brent in Thomas and Sally | |
| Librettist | Isaac Bickerstaffe |
| Premiere | |
Thomas and Sally (also known as The Sailor's Return) is a dramatic pastoral opera in two acts by the composer Thomas Arne with an English libretto by Isaac Bickerstaffe. The opera was meant to be performed as an "after piece", which is a short musical work to be performed after a spoken play.
The opera was initially scheduled to premiere in October 1760 but was postponed due to the death of King George II. The opera eventually premiered on 28 November 1760 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and enjoyed a successful run. Thomas and Sally is one of only a few works by Arne that was not destroyed in the disastrous fire at Covent Garden in 1808 and has occasionally been revived during the past century. [1]
The opera made its Broadway debut at the Little Theatre on 4 January 1938 by the Intimate Opera Company with Geoffrey Dunn as Thomas, Winifred Radford as Sally, and Frederick Woodhouse as the Squire. [2] Thomas and Sally also has the distinction of being one of the first operas recreated for television. The BBC made a television production of the opera in 1937 with Joan Collier as Sally, Vivienne Chatterton as Dorcas, Henry Wendon as Thomas, and Dennis Noble as the Squire. [3]
Thomas and Sally is about fifty minutes in length and is notable in that it is the first English comic opera to be sung throughout. The orchestration is also unusual for a lighter opera of this period, as Arne included clarinets in the score which were usually only used in tragic pieces. The nautical themes in the libretto led Arne to compose a sturdy score that includes a boisterous hunting song for the Squire. Sally's songs are written in an opera buffa style. [1]
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 28 November 1760 [4] Conductor: Thomas Arne |
|---|---|---|
| Sally, a milkmaid | soprano | Charlotte Brent |
| Thomas, a sailor | baritone | |
| A Squire, infatuated with Sally | tenor | William Mattocks |
| Dorcas, a matron | mezzo-soprano | Vernon |
Thomas Augustine Arne was an English composer. He is best known for his patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!" and the song "A-Hunting We Will Go". Arne was a leading British theatre composer of the 18th century, working at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. He wrote many operatic entertainments for the London theatres and pleasure gardens, as well as concertos, sinfonias, and sonatas.
Alcina is a 1735 opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of L'isola di Alcina, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after during his travels in Italy. Partly altered for better conformity, the story was originally taken from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso, an epic poem. The opera contains several musical sequences with opportunity for dance: these were composed for dancer Marie Sallé.
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Lurline is a grand romantic opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace to an English libretto by Edward Fitzball. It was first performed on 23 February 1860 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden by the Pyne and Harrison English Opera Company with Louisa Pyne in the title role. The libretto is based on the legend of the Lorelei.
Artaxerxes is an opera in three acts composed by Thomas Arne set to an English adaptation of Metastasio's 1729 libretto Artaserse. The first English opera seria, Artaxerxes premiered on 2 February 1762 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and continued to be regularly performed until the late 1830s. Its plot is loosely based on the historical figure, Artaxerxes I who succeeded his father Xerxes I after his assassination by Artabanus.
Caterina Galli was an Italian operatic mezzo-soprano. She first rose to fame in England in the 1740s and early 1750s where she was particularly admired for her performances in the works of George Frideric Handel. She then enjoyed success in her native country in the 1750s and 1760s, before returning to England, where she remained active as a performer up through 1797.
Esmeralda is an opera in four acts composed by Arthur Goring Thomas to an English-language libretto by Theo Marzials and Alberto Randegger based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. It premiered in London on 26 March 1883 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with Georgina Burns in the title role and Barton McGuckin as her lover, Phoebus.
Zenobia e Radamisto is an opera in 3 acts and nine scenes by composer Giovanni Legrenzi. The opera uses an Italian language libretto by Ippolito Bentivoglio (1611–1685). The third opera written by Legrenzi, the work premiered on 1 June 1665 at the Teatro Bonacossi in Ferrara in celebration of the marriage of Nicolò Santini and Maria Luisa Bonvisi. The opera was subsequently mounted in Brescia (1666), Verona (1667), and Macerata (1669).
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