[O'HARA, Kane ?1714-1782]

Midas A Comic Opera As it is Perform'd at the Theatre Royal In Covent-Garden. For the Harpsicord[!], Voice, German Flute, Violin, or Guitar. [Piano-vocal score; excerpts]

London: I. Walsh, [?1765].

Oblong folio. Disbound, laid into modern wrappers. Two paginations; the one to the lower outer corners is continuous and specific to the edition: [1f.] (title), 39, [i] (blank) pp. An earlier pagination to the upper outer, sometimes inner corners is incomplete: 1f. (title), [9]-23, 27-30, 32-36, [53]-67, [i] (blank) pp. Engraved. Publisher's catalogue to foot of title.

Systems include staves for vocal parts and figured bass. Instrumental passages include a right-hand part marked "Sy" (=symphony). Additional stanzas printed as residual text. Dialogue not included. Each number preceded by caption: "Sung by..." Names of singers mentioned in captions: "Mr. Legge" (Jonathan Legg, d. 1778), "Mrs. [Priscilla] Stevens" (d. 1783), "Mr. [Charles] Dibdin" (1745-1814), "Mr. [George] Mattocks" (1734/35-1804), "Mr. [John] Beard" (1715/16-1791), "Miss Hallam" (Isabella Mattocks, 1746-1826), "Miss [Elizabeth] Miller," "Miss Poitier (Jane Thompson, b. 1736), "Mr. [John] Fawcet[t]" (d. 1793), "Mr. [Edward] Shuter" (?1728-1776), and "Mr. [John] Dunstall."

Second edition. RISM AM1786 (not distinguishing between the two editions, although the copy at the Bibliothèque nationale de France is noted as having 39 pages instead of 67). WorldCat (several additional copies, not distinguishing between editions). The first edition, to which the earlier, incomplete pagination in the present copy refers, has 67 pages; the second is a compilation of excerpts from the first and has 39 pages only. Page [25] of the second edition was re-engraved as in the first edition it contained the beginning of another number, excluded from the second edition, at its foot.

"Irish librettist and musician [Kane O'Hara]... is known chiefly as the librettist and arranger of the music for Midas... the first ‘English burletta’, presented at the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, on 22 January 1762 as a rival attraction to the season of Italian burlettas at the Smock Alley Theatre... The music contains popular songs of the time, such as arias from Italian operas and folksongs from Ireland and other countries, linked by dialogue set to recitative. There is frequent resort to concerted numbers. With characters consisting of mythological gods and mortals, Midas is in reality a burlesque of opera seria. It attained considerable popularity and was frequently performed in London after the first production at Covent Garden on 22 February 1764." Brian Boydell in Grove Music Online.

Item #25276

Price: $275.00  other currencies