The Duenna

The Duenna is a three-act comic opera, mostly composed by Thomas Linley the elder and his son, Thomas Linley the younger, to an English-language libretto by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. At the time, it was considered one of the most successful operas ever staged in England, and its admirers included Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt and George Byron (the latter called it "the best opera ever written").

First performed in the Covent Garden Theatre on 21 November 1775, The Duenna was performed seventy-five times in its first season, and was frequently revived in Britain until the 1840s. In total, 256 performances of the opera had been held in London from its opening in 1775 to the end of the 18th century. Another 194 performances occurred in the capital during the 19th century, with the last known London staging happening in January 1851 (there were some subsequent Dublin performances in 1853). The opera was first performed in the Colony of Jamaica in 1779, and subsequently spread round the English-speaking world. Soon after its first London performance, representations sprang up in British provincial theatres, though these often used invented dialogue (Sheridan's original libretto was not published until 1794) to link the published songs and musical numbers which had been published in 1775. In autumn 2010, English Touring Opera performed the complete opera in venues around the UK, beginning in the Linbury Studio Theatre within the Royal Opera House as part of ROH2's Autumn season, bringing the opera back to its Covent Garden home. Two modern operas based on Sheridan's libretto have been performed: Sergei Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery (composed 1940–1), and Roberto Gerhard's version of 1945–7.

After the triumph of The Rivals, and having effectively chosen the life of a playwright over that of a lawyer, Sheridan needed a commercial success to cement his position economically and culturally. To do this he skilfully used to his advantage the resources available to him at the time. He judged correctly the popular trend in the last quarter of the 18th century theatre towards operas, pantomime and music.

The Duenna was considered a pastiche opera, though not by choice but as a result of the "extraordinary circumstances in which it was cobbled together." In 1772–73, Sheridan and Elizabeth Linley had a courtship, eventually eloping due to the opposition of their parents towards the relationship. This incident was to later become a major theme in the opera, in the form of Louisa's elopement so she could marry Antonio. After his marriage to Elizabeth Linley in April 1773, their parents eventually relented their opposition to the couple.

Using the musical experience of Elizabeth's father, Thomas Linley the elder, Sheridan asked him to provide music for The Duenna; whilst refraining from telling him about the true nature of the opera or giving him all of the lyrics to it. The remaining lyrics in the opera were written to fit melodies from the Italian operas of that time, as well as some Scottish tunes, such as Michael Arne's The Highland Laddie, made popular in ballad operas. The Scottish tunes were later sent to Linley as they needed harmonising. Linley gave these tunes to his son, Thomas Linley the younger, to harmonise. Linley the younger had proved to be a source of inspiration for his father when creating music for the opera. Illustrating his disdain for Sheridan's decision to incorporate parts of other operas in The Duenna, Thomas Linley the elder wrote to David Garrick:

My son has likewise written some tunes for him . . . This is a mode of proceeding I by no means approve of. I think he ought first to have finished his opera with the songs he intends to introduce in it, and then have got it entirely new set. No musician can set a song properly unless he understands the character,-and knows the performer who is to exhibit it.

The basics of the plot of The Duenna originate in the tradition of Spanish honour dramas and the play includes many features of the genre. Its nearest predecessors are John Fletcher's The Chances and Sir Samuel Tuke's The Adventures of Five Hours. However, for the benefit of the polite 18th-century audience, Sheridan left out the risqué situations of the previous honour dramas, so that when Louisa escapes from her father's house, the street is not the dangerous place her father has threatened her with. It is, in fact, very safe.

Sheridan's personal life also provided models for the plot and characters, as was also the case in The Rivals. Louisa is a sketch of Elizabeth Linley/Sheridan; both have beautiful voices, both are forced by their fathers into marrying wealthy men whom they detest, and both flee to convents to avoid those marriages. The quarrelling of Ferdinand and Antonio can also be traced to the brotherly quarrelling of Richard and Charles Sheridan contemporary to the writing of The Duenna.