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Opera and Drama in Eighteenth-Century London Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Having assumed control of the King's Theatre in early 1773, Brooke soon found that she had inherited a theatre in better shape than must have seemed likely when negotiations with Hobart began. The obvious course of action was to retain Sacchini in order to build upon the success of Il Cid. Her main problem as she assumed responsibility for the longer-term direction of the King's Theatre as an opera house was the formulation of an artistic policy. Even for a manager with a background in opera, this was a complex task with several strands: the recruitment of ‘first’ singers of sufficient quality who could work together; the maintenance of a satisfactory balance of opera seria, comic opera and ballet; and the choice of individual works. Brooke had no background in opera, but she enjoyed one stroke of good fortune, because among her acquaintances was Charles Burney, who in the summer of 1770 had undertaken a ‘musical’ tour of Italy to collect materials for his history of music. During his time abroad, he had visited the major centres of Italian opera in Turin, Milan, Bologna, Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples. In 1772 he set off again, this time for the Low Countries, Germany and Austria, whence he returned in November 1772.
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