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Exhibition

Aquatint of the fourth Drury Lane Theatre, opened to the public 10 October 1812, published 1 November 1812. From Repository of Arts: Rudolph Ackermann. Drury Lane Theatrical Fund.

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Wyatt’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

November 2012

Historically the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is one of the world’s earliest and most important playhouses and the present structure, opened 200 years ago on 10 October 1812, is acknowledged to be ‘London’s finest theatre building’ (Pevsner). The first stone had been laid 29 October 1811 so the building was completed and opened in just under a year at a cost of £150,000.

Designed by Benjamin Dean Wyatt (1775-1855) in neo-Grecian style, this ‘magnificent object’ (as an early visitor described it) was the fourth permanent structure on the site, succeeding buildings of 1663, 1674 and 1794. The last of these, designed for Richard Brinsley Sheridan by Henry Holland (the Duke of Bedford’s Surveyor), had burned nearly to the ground in February 1809 and it was mainly due to the efforts of Samuel Whitbread, the brewer and MP who succeeded Sheridan as Chairman of a new Company of Proprietors in 1810, that the new edifice was completed.

Although Wyatt’s building has sustained a number of additions and alterations – notably three rebuildings of the auditorium in 1822, 1901 and 1922 – its interior public spaces remain ‘important late Georgian monuments in their own right . . unparalleled in any British theatre for their splendour and sense of theatrical occasion’ (The Theatres Trust).

As a house for serious music TRDL has sometimes seemed overshadowed by the neighbouring Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and by the former King’s Theatre / His (Her) Majesty’s in the Haymarket. However its own performance annals include events of the greatest musical distinction and significance to British music history. Numerous 19th-century English operas received their premières here, by composers such as Balfe (13, including The Bohemian Girl), Benedict (The Gipsy’s Warning, etc), Wallace (Maritana), Mackenzie (Colomba) and Stanford (The Canterbury Pilgrims). Continental operas staged for the first time in this country include The Bartered BrideBoris GodunovThe Golden CockerelGuillaume TellLa JuiveKhovanshchinaManonMarthaDie Meistersinger von NürnbergPrince IgorRobert le DiableTristan und Isolde and Les Vêpres Siciliennes. In 1870 Der fliegende Holländer (in English) was the first Wagner opera to be heard in the UK. Sims Reeves, Jean de Reszke, Chaliapin, Richard Tauber, Paul Robeson and Rudolf Nureyev were among those who made their British stage debuts at TRDL. Other important artists who performed here have included Malibran, Grisi, Rubini, Lablache, Titiens, Caruso and Sutherland among singers, Paganini, Thalberg and Menuhin among instrumentalists, and Berlioz, Jullien, Hans Richter, Mahler and Sir Thomas Beecham among conductors. Beecham gave prestigious concerts and opera seasons at the Lane, and in 1913 and 1914 brought the Diaghilev company to the theatre, with a repertoire which included the first British performances of Le Sacre du PrintempsLe Chant du RossignolDaphnis et Chloë and Jeux and Strauss’s Legend of Joseph. Legendary dancers who have appeared here include Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Perrot, Pavlova, Karsavina, Nijinsky, Markova and Fonteyn. This paragraph cannot be concluded without mention of Alfred Bunn, who was firstly Stage Manager for Elliston, then Manager from 1833-1840 and 1844-1848. He introduced many foreign performers to the English Stage and attempted to establish English Opera.

This rich and varied musical heritage has perhaps been obscured by the theatre’s latter day identification with musicals. They began with Friml’s Rose Marie in 1925, and continued with OklahomaCarouselSouth PacificKing & IMy Fair LadyBillyA Chorus Line and Miss Saigon – all of which had more than 700 performances. Miss Saigon holds the record and lasted 10 years. We plan to illustrate more of the musical history of TRDL in the future. Next year will be the 350th anniversary of the granting of the Royal Patent and opening of the first theatre.

We are grateful to Drury Lane Theatrical Fund for their collaboration in the mounting of this display.