The London MerchantThe London Merchant (or The History Of George Barnwell) is playwright George Lillo's most famous work. A tragedy that follows the downfall of a young apprentice due to his association with a prostitute, it is remarkable for its use of middle and working class characters. First performed at the Drury Lane Theatre on 21 June 1731, The London Merchant became one of the most popular plays of the century. SourcesGeorge Lillo was born in London on 4 February 1693.
Royal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, which are known collectively as the Royal Ballet and Opera. The first theatre on the site, the Theatre Royal (1732), served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history.
Ballad operaThe ballad opera is a genre of Englishcomic operastage play that originated in the early 18th century, and continued to develop over the following century and later. Like the earlier comédie en vaudeville and the later Singspiel, its distinguishing characteristic is the use of tunes in a popular style (either pre-existing or newly composed) with spoken dialogue. These English plays were 'operas' mainly insofar as they satirized the conventions of the imported opera seria.Sylvia (opera)Sylvia is a 1730 ballad opera by the British writer George Lillo, written as part of a boom in ballad operas in the wake of John Gay's 1728 hit The Beggar's Opera. The original cast included Thomas Walker as Sir John Freeman, Charles Hulett as Welford, John Hippisley as Jonathon and Jane Egleton as Betty.Fatal CuriosityFatal Curiosity is a 1737 verse drama tragedy by the British writer George Lillo. It is also known by the alternative title Guilt Its Own Punishment. The original cast included Thomas Davies and Charlotte Charke. Implicitly, the work attacks the government and Imperial strategy of Robert Walpole, who had then been prime minister for over a decade. It was shown with Henry Fielding's The Historical Register as an afterpiece.
The Beggar's OperaThe Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by the English poet and dramatist John Gay with music arranged by the German-born Baroque composer Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today. Ballad operas were satiric musical plays that used some of the conventions of opera, but without recitative.Marina (play)Marina is a 1738 tragedy by the British writer George Lillo. It is a reworking of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, produced at a time when Covent Garden was experimenting with a summer season. The original Covent Garden cast included Lewis Hallam as Lysimachus, Sarah Hamilton as Philoten and William Hallam as Mother Coupler.The Christian HeroThe Christian Hero is a 1735 tragedy by the British writer George Lillo. It is based on the life of Skanderbeg who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century. Two years earlier William Havard had written Scanderbeg, another work based on his life.
MoorgateMoorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall. The gate was demolished in 1762, but gave its name to a major street, Moorgate, laid out in 1834. The area around the street and around Moorgate station is informally also referred to as Moorgate.
Lincoln's Inn FieldsLincoln's Inn Fields is located in Holborn and is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes.
John GayJohn Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names.
MoorfieldsMoorfields was an open space, partly in the City of London, lying adjacent to – and outside – its northern wall, near the eponymous Moorgate. It was known for its marshy conditions, the result of the defensive wall acting as a dam, impeding the flow of the River Walbrook and its tributaries.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.