![]() An eighteenth-century engraving by William Hogarth satirises the vogue for foreign operas by showing the plays of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson relegated to the dustbin. ![]() The notoriously unmusical Dr Johnson was speaking of the Italian opera of his day, which, with its male sopranos and altos, its glorification of the singer and the spectacle over drama, and its performance in London in the original language, might well be lost on the average Englishman. `Opera', pronounced Dr Johnson darkly, `is an exotick and irrational entertainment'. ![]() Historically, the British view of opera and opera houses has not always been as splendidly enlightened as that of George Christie who conceived the new Glyndebourne. Here we examine the history of opera theatres designed to house both the art and the social spectacle. Retrieved from įrom its beginnings in the seventeenth century, opera has always been an intensely social and spectacular art, often with highly elaborate and demanding staging requirements.
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