Gainsborough and the Theatre
Gainsborough and the Theatre

Author: Hugh Belsey

Publisher: Philip Wilson Publishers

Published: 2018-11-30

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9781781300664

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Based on new research this fascinating book draws together a group of works from public and private collections to examine, for the first time, the relationship that Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88) had with the theatrical world and the most celebrated stage artists of his day, such as James Quin, David Garrick and Sarah Siddons. Gainsborough painted notable portraits of these and twenty others, including dramatists, dancers and composers. This publication firmly establishes the artist's place within the theatrical worlds of Bath and London and shows why the art of ballet, and in particular Gainsborough's sitters, rose to prominence in 1780 and examines parallels between Gainsborough's much admired painterly naturalism and the theatrical naturalism of Garrick and Siddons with whom he had personal friendships.

The Theatre
The Theatre

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1890

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13:

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Vol. for 1888 includes dramatic directory for Feb.-Dec.; vol. for 1889 includes dramatic directory for Jan.-May.

Music, Books and Theatre in Eighteenth-Century Exton
Music, Books and Theatre in Eighteenth-Century Exton

Author: Colin Timms

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-20

Total Pages: 117

ISBN-13: 1003860079

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This book establishes the cultural background to the productions of Milton’s Comus that were staged in the 1740s by Baptist Noel, 4th Earl of Gainsborough, at Exton Hall, his country seat in the East Midlands of England. The author reveals that Handel’s visit in 1745 occurred in a richer and fuller context of cultural interests among the Noel family. Most of the music at Exton was selected from existing works by Handel, but the four movements of the finale were new, written by the composer specifically for the occasion. The study is based on receipted bills and other documents in an archival collection of Noel family papers that provide evidence of the Earl’s purchase of books and music and of the musical and theatrical activities undertaken on his Exton estate. The author discusses the Earl’s interests in music, books and theatre, indicating a belief in performance as a valuable and enjoyable experience and as a vehicle for the education of the young. In addition to creating a context for Comus, this book sheds light on cultural life in a mid-eighteenth-century English country house and how the Earl’s productions made a significant contribution to the cultural life of the East Midlands. The book will be of great value to cultural musicologists, historians and Handelians, as the documentation sheds a huge amount of light on a variety of cultural practices in eighteenth-century England.

The Theatre Career of Thomas Arne
The Theatre Career of Thomas Arne

Author: Todd Gilman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 645

ISBN-13: 1611494362

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This book concerns the life and theatrical career of the great native-born English composer and musician of the eighteenth century, Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778), best known today as the composer of "Rule, Britannia." It will appeal to those interested in the mid-to-late eighteenth-century London and Dublin theatre, opera, and music scenes.

Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy
Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy

Author: Valerie Hedquist

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-08

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1351006843

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The reception of Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy from its origins to its appearances in contemporary visual culture reveals how its popularity was achieved and maintained by diverse audiences and in varied venues. Performative manifestations resulted in contradictory characterizations of the painted youth as an aristocrat or a "regular fellow," as masculine or feminine, or as heterosexual or gay. In private and public spaces where viewers saw the actual painting and where living and rendered replicas circulated, Gainsborough’s painting was often the centerpiece where dominant and subordinate classes met, gender identities were enacted, and sexuality was implicitly or overtly expressed.

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800
A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800

Author: Philip H. Highfill

Publisher: SIU Press

Published: 1973

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9780809315260

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Like the works already published, these latest volumes of the Biographical Dictionary deal with theatre people of every ilk, ranging from dressers and one-performance actors to trumpeter John Shore (inventor of the tuning fork) and the incomparable Sarah Siddons. Also prominent is Susanna Rowson, a novelist, actress, and early female playwright. Although born into a British military family, Rowson often wrote plays that dealt with patriotic American themes and spent much of her career on the American stage. The theatrical jewel of these volumes is the "divine Sarah" Siddons: "She raised the tragedy to the skies," wrote William Hazlitt, and "embodied to our imagination the fables of mythology, of the heroic and dignified mortals of elder time." She endured much tragedy herself, including a crippling debilitating illness and the deaths of five of her seven children. Siddons played major roles in both comedy and tragedy, not the least of which was a performance as Hamlet.