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Thomas Harris (theatrical Manager)
Thomas Harris (died 1820) was an English theatre manager, who became proprietor of Covent Garden Theatre. Life His background was in business. In the autumn of 1767, with George Colman the elder, John Rutherford, and William Powell, he purchased from John Beard the patent of Covent Garden Theatre. The theatre opened 14 September 1767, with '' The Rehearsal'', in which Powell spoke a prologue by William Whitehead. Colman took on a management role, but a serious quarrel broke outbetween Harris and Colman arose during the first season, driven by the ambitions of Jane Lessingham, an actress with whom Harris lived. Colman, with whom Powell sided, barricaded the theatre, and Harris, supported by Rutherford, broke it forcibly open. Legal proceedings and a pamphlet war followed. On 23 July 1770 a legal decision of the commissioners of the Great Seal reinstated Colman as acting manager, subject to the advice and inspection, but not the control, of his fellows. Powell meanwhile had died 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Covent Garden Theatre
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The first theatre on the site, the Theatre Royal (1732), served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, the first season of operas, by George Frideric Handel, began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there. The current building is the third theatre on the site, following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856 to previous buildings. The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The main auditorium seats 2,256 people, maki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Colman The Elder
George Colman (April 1732 – 14 August 1794) was an English dramatist and essayist, usually called "the Elder", and sometimes "George the First", to distinguish him from his son, George Colman the Younger. He also owned a theatre. Early life He was born in Florence, where his father was stationed as British Resident Minister (diplomatic envoy) at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Colman's father died within a year of his son's birth and William Pulteney- afterwards Lord Bath- whose wife was Mrs. Colman's sister, undertook to educate the boy. After he received private education in Marylebone, George attended Westminster School. Colman left school in due course for Christ Church, Oxford. There he made the acquaintance of the parodist Bonnell Thornton, with whom he co-founded '' The Connoisseur'' (1754–1756), a periodical which "wanted weight," as Johnson said, although it reached its 140th number. He left Oxford after taking his degree in 1755 and, having been entered a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Powell (English Actor)
William Powell (1735–1769) was an English actor. Early life He was born in Hereford, and educated at Hereford grammar school and at Christ's Hospital in London. Sir Robert Ladbrooke, a distiller and then president of Christ's Hospital, took him on as apprentice in his counting-house. Powell, however, was interested in amateur theatricals: Ladbrooke suppressed a club in Doctors' Commons of which Powell had become a member. For a while Powell remained in Ladbrooke's office. Charles Holland however, introduced him to David Garrick, who wanted to travel and sought a substitute actor. At Drury Lane Carefully coached by Garrick, Powell made his first appearance on stage at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 October 1763 as Philaster (in an adaptation of Beaumont and Fletcher's play, by George Colman the Elder). Supported also by James Lacy, Powell made a success. The ticket receipts were up to the best Garrick days. Garrick reappeared in the season of 1765–6, and took over from Powell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Beard (tenor)
John Beard (c. 1716 – 5 February 1791) was an English tenor of the 18th century. He is best remembered for creating an extensive number of roles in the operas and oratorios of George Frideric Handel. Beard's début came in Handel's 1734 revival of his ''Il pastor fido'', which was a great success. Beard continued to sing for Handel, creating roles in ten of his operas and performing in every one of Handel's English-language oratorios, odes, and music dramas, with the sole exception of '' The Choice of Hercules''. He also performed for Thomas Arne, and sang at the Chapel Royal. His marriage, during 1739, to Lady Henrietta Herbert, only daughter of James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave caused much scandal: Lord Egmont commented that "there is no prudence below the girdle". Lady Henrietta died in 1753. In 1759 Beard married again, this time to Charlotte Rich, whose father John Rich was the proprietor of the opera house in Covent Garden. After John Rich died in 1761, Beard succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Rehearsal (play)
''The Rehearsal'' was a satire, satirical play aimed specifically at John Dryden and generally at the sententious and overly ambitious theatre of the English Restoration, Restoration tragedy. The play was first staged on 7 December 1671 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, Theatre Royal, and published anonymously in 1672, but it is certainly by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and others. Several people have been suggested as collaborators, including Samuel "Hudibras" Butler, Samuel Butler of ''Hudibras'' fame, Martin Clifford (writer), Martin Clifford, and Thomas Sprat, a Royal Society founder and later Bishop of Rochester. The play concerns a playwright named Bayes attempting to stage a play. The play he is going to put on is made up almost entirely of excerpts of existing ''heroic dramas''. The name "Bayes" indicates the poet laureate. The previous poet laureate had been William Davenant, and Davenant did stage spectacles and plays with exceptionally bombastic speeche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Whitehead (English Poet)
William Whitehead (baptized 12 February 1715 – 14 April 1785) was an English poet and playwright. He became Poet Laureate in December 1757 after Thomas Gray declined the position. Life The son of a baker, Whitehead was born in Cambridge and through the patronage of Henry Bromley, afterwards Baron Montfort, was admitted to Winchester College aged fourteen. He entered Clare College, Cambridge on a Pyke scholarship in 1735, and became a fellow in 1742 (resigning this in 1746), and admitted Master of Arts in 1743. At Cambridge, Whitehead published an epistle ''On the Danger of writing Verse'' and some other poems, notably an heroic epistle, ''Ann Boleyn to Henry the Eighth'' (1743), and a didactic ''Essay on Ridicule'', also (1743). In 1745 Whitehead became the tutor of George Villiers, Viscount Villiers, son of William Villiers, 3rd Earl of Jersey, and took up his residence in London. There he produced two tragedies: ''The Roman Father'' and ''Creusa, Queen of Athens''. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jane Lessingham
Jane Lessingham née Hemet (1738 or 1739 –- 13 March 1783) (married name Jane Stott) was a stage actress from 1756 to 1782. Lessingham predominately performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, where she was known for both her beauty and her skill as a comedy actress. __TOC__ Lessingham first came to the stage during 1756, when she played Desdemona in a production of '' Othello'' at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. It was not until March, 1762 that she began to use the stage name ‘Lessingham’, when she took the part of Silvia in George Farquhar's play ''The Recruiting Officer.'' During 1768, Lessingham was involved in a public controversy between theatre managers Thomas Harris and George Colman. Colman, and other contemporary sources, cited Lessingham's ambitions as one of the major sources of the conflict. On 13 March 1783 Lessingham died. She was buried in Hampstead Churchyard and left her estate in trust to Harris for the care of their four sons. Career The diaris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Seal Act 1688
The Great Seal Act 1688 (1 Will & Mary c 21) is an Act of the Parliament of England. section 1 of the Act is still in force in Great Britain.The Chronological Table of the Statutes, 1235 - 2010. The Stationery Office. 2011. . Part I. Page 68, read with pages viii and x. The Act was passed because the office of Lord Chancellor had been put in commission (that is, divided between several officers at the same time, instead of being held by a single individual). Section 1 of the Act states that the commissioners are to be called Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal of England, and that each lord commissioner is to have the same powers as the Lord Chancellor has. Each lord commissioner is to rank in the order of precedence after the Speaker of the House of Commons. The office was last in commission in 1850. the Lord Chancellor is Brandon Lewis. Repeals The rest of the Act has been repealed. Sections 2 and 3 were repealed bsection 8(2)of, and Part I oSchedule 5to, the Justices of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes the electoral wards of Abbey, Dundonald, Hillside, Trinity, Village, Raynes Park and Wimbledon Park. It is home to the Wimbledon Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas of common land in London. The residential and retail area is split into two sections known as the "village" and the "town", with the High Street being the rebuilding of the original medieval village, and the "town" having first developed gradually after the building of the railway station in 1838. Wimbledon has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age when the hill fort on Wimbledon Common is thought to have been constructed. In 1086 when the Domesday Book was compiled, Wimbledon was part of the manor of Mortlake. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hillingdon
Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civil parish bore a rapid, planned increase in population and housing, and was absorbed by Uxbridge Urban District in 1929. It has formed part of Greater London since 1965. Much of Hillingdon has lasting, albeit minor, administrative effect as the current Hillingdon East ward for electing councillors to Hillingdon London Borough Council. In November 2010, the ward had a recorded population of 12,403. History Toponymy The name ''Hillingdon'' appears in the ''Domesday Book'' (1086) as ''Hillendone'', possibly meaning "hill of a man named Hille". The name could also mean 'hill of a woman named Hilda'. Local government Hillingdon was an ancient parish, and had within it the chapelry of Uxbridge, which became a separate civil parish in 1866. When a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uxbridge
Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbridge formed part of the parish of Hillingdon in the county of Middlesex, and was a significant local commercial centre from an early time. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century it expanded and increased in population, Municipal Borough of Uxbridge, becoming a municipal borough in 1955, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. A few major events have taken place in and around the town, including attempted negotiations between King Charles I of England, Charles I and the Roundhead, Parliamentary Army during the English Civil War. The public house at the centre of those events, since renamed the Crown and Treaty, Crown & Treaty, still stands. RAF Uxbridge houses the Battle of Britain Bunker, from where the air de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longmans
Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC. Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also used for the Longman Schools in China and the ''Longman Dictionary''. History Beginnings The Longman company was founded by Thomas Longman (1699 – 18 June 1755), the son of Ezekiel Longman (died 1708), a gentleman of Bristol. Thomas was apprenticed in 1716 to John Osborn, a London bookseller, and at the expiration of his apprenticeship married Osborn's daughter. In August 1724, he purchased the stock and household goods of William Taylor, the first publisher of ''Robinson Crusoe'', for 9s 6d. Taylor's two shops in Paternoster Row, London, were known respectively as the ''Black Swan'' and the ''Ship'', premises at that time having signs rather than numbers, and became the publishing house premises. Longman entered into partn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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