ABSTRACT
Given Lord Burghersh's avocation as an active dilettante composer, the customary social life expected from the British Embassy in Florence took on unusual dimensions between 1815 and 1830. As a rule, the operas were performed by a combination of both dilettante and professional singers, almost exclusively English and Italian in origin, who were residing in Florence at the time. The librettos Burghersh selected reveal a certain independent if not erratic intelligence at play. A compositional history for the operas cannot be as thorough as it should be due to the absence of basic information pertaining to Lord Burghersh's compositional activities. There is no public evidence that Lord Burghersh displayed his musical accomplishments in any conspicuous manner for several years after arriving in Florence. On March 25, 1830, Lord Burghersh apparently began a series of performance/ productions with another production of La Fedra that initiated a season of farewells.
