Book contents
- Music and the Benefit Performance in Eighteenth-Century Britain
- Music and the Benefit Performance in Eighteenth-Century Britain
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Musical Benefits in the London Theatre: Networks and Repertories
- 1 Risks and Rewards: Benefits and Their Financial Impact on Actors, Authors, Singers, and Other Musicians in London, c. 1690–1730
- 2 With Several Entertainments of Singing and Dancing: London Theatre Benefits, 1700–1725
- 3 Concertos ‘upon the Stage’ in Early Hanoverian London: The Instrumental Counterpart to Opera Seria
- 4 Cobblers, Country Fairs, and Cross-Dressing: Benefits and the Development of Ballad Opera
- Part II Beyond London: Mimicry or Originality?
- Part III Benefits and Public Image
- Part IV Charity Benefits
- Part V The Role of the Audience
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Musical Works
- General Index
2 - With Several Entertainments of Singing and Dancing: London Theatre Benefits, 1700–1725
from Part I - Musical Benefits in the London Theatre: Networks and Repertories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2019
- Music and the Benefit Performance in Eighteenth-Century Britain
- Music and the Benefit Performance in Eighteenth-Century Britain
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Musical Benefits in the London Theatre: Networks and Repertories
- 1 Risks and Rewards: Benefits and Their Financial Impact on Actors, Authors, Singers, and Other Musicians in London, c. 1690–1730
- 2 With Several Entertainments of Singing and Dancing: London Theatre Benefits, 1700–1725
- 3 Concertos ‘upon the Stage’ in Early Hanoverian London: The Instrumental Counterpart to Opera Seria
- 4 Cobblers, Country Fairs, and Cross-Dressing: Benefits and the Development of Ballad Opera
- Part II Beyond London: Mimicry or Originality?
- Part III Benefits and Public Image
- Part IV Charity Benefits
- Part V The Role of the Audience
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Musical Works
- General Index
Summary
The practice of granting benefit evenings to theatre personnel became established in the late 1690s as a device for making up salaries that the two struggling companies could not afford to pay in full, but by 1720 a benefit evening had regularized into a standard element of a performer’s contract. Before the advent of London’s first daily newspaper, The Daily Courant, in March 1702, information about benefits is frustratingly scrappy. However, by early 1704 both companies were placing regular daily advertisements that increasingly included the entertainments of singing, dancing, and instrumental music that were offered on benefit nights. This chapter will look at the whole range of musical entertainments in benefits for actors and actresses as well as in those for specialist singers and dancers, and will consider to what extent the benefits reflected the personalities and circumstances of the beneficiaries.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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