A COMIC OPERA
The Duenna premiered at the Covent Garden Theatre on 21 November 1775. It was performed seventy-five times during its first season and it was considered to be one of the most successful operas produced in England. Sheridan wrote the libretto for the three-act opera, while his father-in-law and brother-in-law, Thomas Linley the elder and Thomas Linley the younger respectively, composed most of the music. After the popularity of The Rivals, Sheridan was keen to produce another commercially successful work to establish himself as an important cultural figure. He decided that writing a ‘comic opera’ would be a sensible financial decision, but lacked the musical knowledge to complete the work on his own, so he turned to his composer father-in-law for assistance. The score was a combination of original compositions and music from other operas that Sheridan incorporated into the play. Quite astonishingly, less than a month prior to the opening night, Linley knew very little of the context for much of his composition and had not heard the voices of all of the performers for whom he was writing.
The Duenna is set in Seville, Spain and centres on the wealthy Don Jerome’s family. His son is in love with Clara, whose father forces her into nunnery and his daughter, Louisa, who wishes to marry Antonio. However, Don Jerome forbids this union and insists she marries Isaac Mendoza, because, unlike Antonio, he is a man that possesses substantial wealth. He is Portuguese and a recent convert to Christianity from Judaism, both of which are asserted as reasons she should not accept him as a husband. The play is steeped in anti-Semitism, as exemplified by Ferdinand’s remarks about Mendoza: ‘the remarkable part of his character is his passion for deceit and tricks of cunning’. It is not enough for Isaac to renounce his country or become a Christian, as he is still deemed to be untrustworthy, unscrupulous and suspect.