London and England

Question 1

Accessibility for lower classes?

Answer 1

Ballad Operas, Oratorios, some promenade concerts at Vauxhall Gardens, benefit concerts in north

Question 2

How much was a subscription series? and a single ticket?

Answer 2

5 Guineas and 1/2 Guinea respectively

Question 3

Primary purpose of London Opera?

Answer 3

Entertainment

Question 4

Audience reaction and engagement in London Opera?

Answer 4

Saw it as a social event, not as much active listening, intrigued by virtuosos

Question 5

Give two examples of how London opera was not concerned with nationalism

Answer 5

Italian Operas by Haydn and Handel; Foreign virtuosos often a spectacle

Question 6

Name a famous virtuoso linked with the London Opera

Answer 6

Gertrude Elisabeth Mara

Question 7

Who patronised concert life in London?

Answer 7

Merchants and aristocrats - Royal academy of music 1719

Question 8

How was one of Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios considered maybe nationalist?

Answer 8

Theodora 1750 - celebrates the new English-Ottoman Alliance - countering French expansion in the Mediterranean

Question 9

What was the appealing factor for successful benefit concerts?

Answer 9

Novelty - Child Prodigies, new instruments like glass harmonica, serpent, or fortepiano, and theatrical acts like tightrope walks

Question 10

Quote about how the Royal Academy was created to reinforce societal upper-class standards? who said it?

Answer 10

[the librettos were] “the staple of the diet of a gentleman’s education… intended to illuminate how the great should behave” - Elizabeth Gibson

Question 11

Motivations of RA Patrons? (3)

Answer 11

1. Money, Own Social Status, London supremacy as international hub - supremacy through power rather than the art itself

Question 12

Despite the Operas not being superficially nationalistic, what did the patrons hope to portray about London through the choice and use of Opera?

Answer 12

That London was a centre for high-class opera, the power came from their ability to RECRUIT rather than CREATE, status symbol

Question 13

Context for the push in the Opera scene?

Answer 13

Wanted to be viewed as powerful in the cultural world as a trader - directors closely tied to East India Company, keep their concerns at the foreground of culture

Question 14

What proportion of Handel Operas were Oriental setting?

Answer 14

2/3

Question 15

Common Orientalist narrative in Handel Opera?

Answer 15

Despotic Eastern civ tamed by the virtuous and honourable western civ, e.g Riccardo Primo