Italian Opera in Late Eighteenth-Century London: Volume 2: The Pantheon Opera and its Aftermath 1789-1795

Following on from the volume on The King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1778-1791 (published in 1995), this interdisciplinary study of opera and ballet now turns to London's Pantheon Opera during the period 1789-95. The Pantheon Opera, founded in 1790, aimed to give London a kind of court opera that would feature opera seria and ballet d'action. It tried to hire Mozart to compete with Haydn, but its high aspirations led only to a quick bankruptcy. A recent major archival discovery has permitted startlingly full analysis of the company's repertoire, costumes, staging practices, and finances.