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May - Performance of The Siege of Rhodes, Part I, by Sir William Davenant, the "first English opera" (under the guise of a recitative), in a private theatre at his home, Rutland House, in the City of London.
The poet and playwright William Davenant, a student of Lincoln College, was born here and William Shakespeare, Davenant's godfather, visited here.
After the English Restoration in 1660, Charles II granted Letters Patent to two companies to perform "legitimate drama" in London: the Duke's Company under the patronage of the Duke of York, led by William Davenant, and the King's Company, led by Thomas Killigrew.
Then he was employed again as a court musician, among others, at the performances of the masques The Triumph of Peace (1634) by James Shirley and William Davenant's Britannia triumphans (1637).
Rutland House on Aldersgate Street, near Charterhouse Square in the City of London, close to Smithfield Market, was leased by the playwright and impresario Sir William Davenant (1606–1668).
In 1656, William Davenant, an Elizabethan and Restoration actor and producer, wrote the first English opera, The Seige sic of Rhodes, based on the incident.
The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island (1674) libretto by Thomas Shadwell after John Dryden and William Davenant's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest; music by Matthew Locke, Giovanni Battista Draghi and Pelham Humfrey