ABSTRACT
Like other works of literature, dramas and operas sometimes form pairs, groups or sets. The trilogies of ancient Greek drama – performed with a concluding satyr-play – are the first but by no means the last examples of this tradition. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the phenomenon was frequent in European theatres, in opera as well as in spoken drama. Usually, two or more ‘matching’ works were created and performed together in the same season, or spread over a short span of years. Also sequels or ‘spin-offs’ were produced in later seasons to match an earlier single work which had been successful. There were, furthermore, artificial pairs (the coupling of two originally independent works), split dramas (a single work performed over two or even three occasions), ‘series’ and ‘mini-series’, rings and cycles. Of all these varieties, paired (or ‘twinned’) dramas are perhaps the most striking phenomenon.
