Les Sieurs Piccini, Paésiello, Trajetta, & d'autres grands maitres d'Italie, ont occupé cette année le théatre de Londres, les opéras de Germondo, d'Astarto, de Telemacs, de Pyramo & Thisbeea, ceux de la Fraschetana, de la Buona Figliola, il Geloso in Cimento, la Schiava etc etc. & mardi 20 May, I Capriccii del Sesso, ont été représentés depuis le commencement de l'hiver. Nous parlerons seulement de ceux qui ont paru faire le plus de sensation.

En général l'Opera Comique a été plus gouté que l'Opera Sérieux, & il est certain qu'il le méritoit davantage. La musique de Télémaque cependant est remplie de choses sublimes, & fait le plus grand honneur à son compositeur Mr Trajetta. On a essayé d'y introduire des Ballets analogues au sujet, mais c'est un bien petit pas qu'on a fait dans cette carriere.

Je ne craindrai pas de dire mon avis à cet égard. Je suis toujours fort étonné que le compositeurs des ballets, qui sont François, qui ont pris les leçons de leur art à l'Academie Royale de Paris, n'ayent pas essayé plûtot de suivre l'exemple de l'Opéra François. Je leur crois assés de gout me persuader qu'ils ne demanderoit pas mieux qu'on leur en donnat les moyens.

Faced with the prospect of having to compete with Agujari at the Pantheon, and knowing that her own seria stars were not of the first rank, Brooke decided as a matter of urgency to revitalise the programme of comic opera. Opera buffa had been more or less defunct at the King's Theatre for two years as a result of failures in the recruitment programme. If, as she perhaps already suspected might be the outcome, her untried castrato and his undistinguished partner were to fail to measure up to the Pantheon star, the fortunes of the King's Theatre might end up largely dependant on a successful season of opera buffa.

The extent to which comic opera had been dominant during the six seasons at the King's Theatre prior to Brooke's management can be demonstrated by figures compiled by Petty. This was the era of Lovattini, and during the period of his ascendancy opera seria accounted for only one quarter of all performances. But for the brief revival in the 1769–70 season featuring Guadagni, the disparity would have been even greater.

8 December 1776

Horace Walpole to Horace Mann

The Managers of the Opera to the Lord Chamberlain

The managers of the Opera beg permission to solicit the Lord Chamberlains protection, and to lay before his Lordship a real state of the hardships under which they suffer.

They beg leave to represent to his Lordship that it is impossible for the Receipts of Italian Opera's only to support the necessary expences.

That the Salaries of the first Singers and Dancers being so enormous they are at a larger yearly expence than the other Theatres, and instead of six Nights in a Week have in effect only one as on the Tuesdays they constantly play to great loss.

That the Subscription Saturday Nights are only twenty five and the few nights after the Subscription scarce worth taking, as the People of fashion are out of town.

That the Kings Theatre was originally a play house under his Majestys immediate protection and that of the Lord Chamberlain and continued such till Mr Collier came into a compromise with the Managers of Drury Lane to suspend giving plays at the Opera House on condition the Managers of Drury Lane engaged not to play on Opera Nights and to allow the Directors of the Opera as a further compensation Two Hundred Pounds a Year: an Agreement which has not been fulfill'd on the side of the Patentees of the other Theatre for many years: on the contrary, they have given the strongest pieces they possibly cou'd at both houses, on Opera Nights, and given both comic and serious English Operas with Italian Music, to the great detriment of the Managers of the Opera.

Even before the start of the final season at the King's Theatre, the Brooke-Yates management team was considering a return to the theatrical world. Early in 1777 Richard Yates applied for a licence to open a theatre in Birmingham, and a bill to this effect was presented in the House of Commons on 26 March. It was scheduled for discussion on 22 April. Garrick, who had been lobbying for Yates, wrote to Edmund Burke to thank him for his support. Burke had been sympathetic at first ‘despite a very powerful recommendation’ from some of his constituents, and he sided with Yates, but, in the face of direct pressure from a group of his supporters with Birmingham connections, he was pressured into adopting a more neutral stance. He nevertheless reassured Garrick about the outcome: ‘But I believe, as far as I can see, that Yates is in no great danger. The House seems to be with him; & assuredly I do not mean to be a very mischievous Enemy to him.’ Garrick replied: ‘Ten thousand thanks my dear Burke for Your very kind letter – God forbid that all ye Patents in the World should injure Your Interest, where you are so much in Duty and kindness [bound].’ After the debate, however, the bill was defeated.

Sacchini's brilliant debut marked a turning point, not only in the financial fortunes of the King's Theatre, but also in the revitalisation of opera seria as a genre in London. The extraordinary impact of Il Cid and Tamerlano struck Charles Burney so forcibly that he later singled them out for special commendation, describing the two operas as ‘so entire, so masterly, yet so new and natural, that there was nothing left for criticism to censure, though [they had] innumerable beauties to point out and admire’. He also felt it worthy of note that Sacchini had been ‘totally occupied with the ideas of the poet, and the propriety, consistency, and effect of the whole drama’. In the light of this last comment, the remarkable reception accorded to Il Cid is best interpreted against the background of the pasticcio culture that had come to dominate opera seria at the King's Theatre. The decline of serious opera had in fact been so marked that the employment of a good composer (as distinct from an arranger) was coming to seem almost superfluous. The total number of performances of original works in the three years before Sacchini's arrival had dwindled to a mere thirteen, eight of Guglielmi's Ezio, two of the same composer's Demetrio and three of Cocchi's Semiramide riconosciuto. London seemed in danger of forgetting the theatrical impact that a drama under the creative control of a single musician could have.

The long delay in the recruitment of Lovattini meant that the 1774–5 opera buffa season began with something of a rush. It was just as well that the first work was to be La buona figliuola, for which little rehearsal with the singer would have been needed. The advertisements for the opening night suggest that he arrived at the very last moment. In a notice published on 13 December, the managers included his name in a list of singers for that day's performance, but the next day an apology appeared, which blamed the indisposition of the singer for the cancellation of the opening night: ‘The managers of the opera are extremely concerned for the Disappointment of the house last night at Sg Lovatini's illness. As soon as they were apprised of it they took every precaution by posting bills etc. and sent word to as many subscribers as time would permit.’ One has visions of Lovattini hurrying off the cross-Channel boat, rushing up to London for a last-minute dress rehearsal, and then collapsing with exhaustion. In the event La buona figliuola opened a week later on 20 December. A postponed opening night was becoming something of a habit with the Brooke-Yates management. The previous year's opening night had suffered a similar fate.

For the 1777–8 season which was to be her last, Brooke recruited two singers from Mannheim, Francesca Danzi (soon to be Madame Le Brun) and Francesco Roncaglia. Again, Burney may have been influential in the choice. When he visited Mannheim in 1772, he singled out Roncaglia as one of the vocal performers of the band who ‘deserve to be distinguished’. Roncaglia had the added advantage of being known to Bach, having sung in Temistocle (November 1772) and Lucio Silla (November 1774). Danzi was described by Burney as a singer of unusual promise: ‘Signora Francesca Danzi a German girl, whose voice and execution are brilliant: she has likewise a pretty figure, a good shake, and an expression as truly Italian as if she had lived her whole life in Italy; in short, she is now a very engaging and agreeable performer, and promises still greater things.’ Her recruitment, as usual with Brooke, was made at least a year in advance. When the Reverend Coxe wrote to Lady Pembroke on 3 February 1777, she had already been hired.

The choice of comic repertoire to supplement the major new opera seria productions by Sacchini and Bach shows the results of Brooke's previous correspondence with Ozias Humphry.

The financial records of the opera house at this period suggest that the general competence and flair of Brooke's regime was eventually rewarded by a positive balance sheet, once the crisis over Agujari had been overcome. The discovery of several bank accounts used by the managers has shed much light on the details of the finances of Italian opera in London in the 1770s, a subject about which little has hitherto been known for certain. Until the 1772–3 season, Hobart banked at Drummonds, where there had been an opera account for many decades. The Brooke–Yates partnership abruptly terminated this long association, opening an account at Hoare & Co., which they used for three and a half seasons (see Appendix 1a). For the 1777–8 season, their last at the King's Theatre, they opened an account with Mayne & Graham of Jermyn Street, but since this partnership went bankrupt in the early 1780s, the accounts must now be regarded as lost. In 1778 Sheridan and Harris returned to Drummonds, opening an account which lasted for the year of their partnership (see Appendix 1b). Jonathan Garton, treasurer of Covent Garden, became involved with opera finances that year, and his own, much larger account includes transactions clearly made on behalf of the King's Theatre (see Appendix 1c).