A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/King's Theatre, The
KING'S THEATRE, THE. In the early part of the 18th century, Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect and dramatist, proposed to the performers at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre to build them a new and splendid theatre in the Haymarket, and, his offer being accepted, he raised a subscription of £30,000 in sums of £100 each, in return for which every subscriber was to have a free admission for life. The undertaking was greatly promoted by the Kit-Cat Club, and the first stone of the building, which was wholly from the designs of Vanbrugh, was laid in 1704 with great solemnity by the beautiful Countess of Sunderland (daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough), known as 'The little Whig.' Congreve, the dramatist, was associated with Vanbrugh in the management, and the theatre was opened on April 9, 1705, under the name of 'The Queen's Theatre,' which name was changed on the accession of George I. in 1714 to 'King's Theatre,' by which it continued to be called until the death of William IV. in 1837, since which it has been styled 'Her Majesty's Theatre,' the reason for not resuming the name 'Queen's Theatre' being that the theatre in Tottenham Street at the time bore that appellation. Vanbrugh's erection, although internally a splendid and imposing structure, was totally unfitted for its purpose, owing to the reverberations being so great as to make the spoken dialogue almost unintelligible, and to necessitate extensive alterations in order to prevent them. In the course of a few years the house became the established home of Italian opera. In it the greater part of Handel's operas and nearly all his early oratorios were first performed. On the evening of June 17, 1789, the building was burned to the ground. It was rebuilt in 1790 from designs by Michael Novosielski, the lyre-shaped plan being then first adopted in England. When completed it was refused a licence for dramatic representations, but a magistrates' licence being obtained it was opened with a concert and ballet on March 26, 1791. [See p. 710a [App. p.690 "add vol. i. to reference".] A regular licence was however soon afterwards granted. The interior of the theatre was the largest in England; there were five tiers of boxes, exclusive of slips, and it was capable of containing nearly 3300 persons. It was admirably adapted for conveying sound. On the east side was a large and handsome concert-room, 95 feet long, 46 feet broad, and 35 feet high, on a level with the principal tier of boxes. About 1817 an important alteration was made in the exterior of the theatre by the erection of the colonnades on the north, south, and east sides, and the formation of the western arcade. The northern colonnade has since been removed. (There is a good description of the pit, including the famous 'Fops' alley' in Lumley's 'Reminiscences,' chap, vii.) The theatre was again destroyed by fire on Friday night, Dec. 6, 1867. It was rebuilt by April 1869, but not opened until 1875, and then not for operatic performances, but for the exhibition of the preaching and singing of Messrs. Moody and Sankey, who occupied it for about three months, after which it remained closed until April 28, 1877, when it was re-opened as an opera house. No theatre, perhaps, has been under the management of so many different persons—Swiney, Collier, Aaron Hill, Heidegger, Handel, the Earl of Middlesex, Signora Venisci, Crawford, Yates, Gordon, Hon. J. Hobart, Brookes, O'Reilly, Le Texier, Sir John Gallini, Tranchard, Taylor, Goold, Waters, Ebers, Benelli, Laporte, Monck Mason, Lumley, E. T. Smith, and Mapleson, have by turns directed its affairs. To attempt only to name the compositions produced there, and the eminent artists who have been their exponents, would extend this notice to an unreasonable length; it would be, in fact, almost to write a history of the Italian opera in England.
[ W. H. H. ]