Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This delightfully written book, the sequel to T. J. Walsh's Opera in Dublin 1705-1797 (Allen Figgis, 1973), traces the history of the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin under the management of Frederick Jones. Drawing upon reports in newspapers and journals of the time, Walsh chronicles with wit, verve, and humor, two decades of theatrical and operatic life in Dublin. This was a period which saw the decline of the English ballad opera and pasticcio and the rise of Italian opera and bel canto. Such famous singers of the time as Angelica Catalani, John Braham, Giuseppe Naldi, Giuseppe Ambrogetti, Michael Kelly, Teresa Bertinotti Radicati, and Catherine Stephens are the subject of many vivid descriptions and anecdotes. Technical advances in the theatre, from the "few hundred gallons of Spermaceti Oil" required in 1800 to the installation of gas lighting in 1819, form an important part of the story. Neither the reader interested in the social history of Dublin at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, nor the connoisseur of colorful operatic and theatrical conditions in a transitional age will be disappointed by this book.

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CHOICE Review

A continuation of Walsh's Opera in Dublin, 1705-1797 (CH, Oct'75), this volume is a vivid, crowded account of Dublin's musical theater, comedies, pasticci, and opera. It is informative and reads well, with critical, biographical, and social/popular accounts of the great stars, composers, and audiences of the time. Walsh, who unfortunately died before this work reached print, corrects minor errors in his first volume and, more important, in tenor Michael Kelly's Reminiscenses (CH, Apr'76). Kelly had been a member of the first cast of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and a friend of Mozart, Haydn, Gluck, Kean, and Sheridan. Much of the information is sociological, not theatrical or musical, especially that dealing with the stars and with such composers as Michael Balfe. There are black-and-white pictures, examples of title pages of operas, theater bills, some musical examples, appendixes with casts of first performances, a list of theater rules and regulations, fine notes, an excellent bibliography, and a very valuable index. Recommended, especially for libraries with shelves dedicated to theater arts. All levels. J. Rayburn; Mercy College