Thursday, 27 March 2014
Book Launch Date
Monday, 10 March 2014
A Night At The Opera
On 8 January 1801, Jane Austen wrote to her sister
Cassandra, who was staying at Godmersham Park: ‘I think you judge very wisely
in putting off your London visit...You speak with such noble resignation of Mrs Jordan and the Opera House, that it would be an insult to suppose resignation
required’. By 25 January, Cassandra must
have written to Jane to say that she would soon be on her way to the
metropolis: ‘I hope you shall see everything worthy [of] notice, from the Opera
House to Henry’s [their brother’s] office in Cleveland Court; and I shall expect
you to lay in a stock of intelligence that may procure me amusement for twelve
months to come’ (Lord Edward Brabourne, Letters
of Jane Austen, 2 Vols., Richard Bentley & Son, 1884).
Which Opera House was Jane referring to? According to A Picture of London for 1802, (R. Phillips, c.1802), the Opera House, a ‘magnificent theatre’ was ‘situated at the lower end of the west side of the Haymarket’. It was originally known as the Queen’s Theatre, and was built by John Vanbrugh in about 1705. The Opera House ‘was open in the winter, and till Midsummer, for Italian operas and French ballets’.
However by about 1808, Ackermann’s Microcosm of London
rather snootily commented that although the stage scenery was ‘very good’, the
stage was ‘not sufficient for the magnificent ballets which the prevailing taste
of the day requires’.
In 1837 the Opera House was renamed Her Majesty’s Theatre,
in honour of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne.
Images from the author’s collection:
Evening dress. The Lady’s Magazine, January 1827.
The Opera House in 1800. Old and New London Vol. IV, 1878.
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