During the period of Handel's presidency over our Italian Opera, works not only by Handel and his colleagues, but also by Scarlatti, Hasse, Porpora, Vinci, Veracini, and other composers were produced at the King's Theatre, at Covent Garden, and at Porpora's Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. After Handel's retirement, operas by Galuppi, Pergolese, Jomelli, Gluck, and Piccinni, were performed, and the most distinguished singers in Europe continued to visit London. In 1741, when the Earl of Middlesex undertook the management of the King's Theatre, Galuppi was engaged as composer, and produced several operas: among others, _Penelope_, _Scipione_, and _Enrico_. In 1742, the _Olimpiade_, with music by Pergolese (a pupil of Hasse, and the future composer of the celebrated _Serva Padrona_) was brought out. After Galuppi's return to Italy, in 1744, the best of his new operas continued to be produced in London. His _Mondo della Luna_ was represented in 1760, when the English public were delighted with the gaiety of the music, and with the charming acting and singing of Signora Paganini. The year afterwards a still greater success was achieved with the same composer's _Filosofo di Campagna_, which, says Dr. Burney, "surpassed in musical merit all the comic operas that were performed in England till the _Buona Figliola_." Not only were Gluck's earlier and comparatively unimportant works performed in London soon after their first production at Vienna, but his _Orfeo_, the first of those great works written in the style which we always associate with Gluck's name, was represented in London in 1770, four years before Gluck went to Paris. Indeed, ever since the arrival of Handel in this country, London has been celebrated for its Italian Opera, whereas the French had no regular continuous performances of Italian Opera until nearly a hundred years afterwards. Handel did much to create a taste for this species of entertainment, and by the excellent execution which he took care every opera produced under his direction should receive, he set an example to his successors of which the value can scarcely be over-estimated, and which it must be admitted has, on the whole, been followed with intelligence and enterprise. CHAPTER VII. GENERAL VIEW OF THE OPERA IN EUROPE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY UNTIL THE APPEARANCE OF GLUCK. Great Italian Singers.--Ferri in Sweden.--Opera in Vienna.--Scenic decorations.--Singers of the Eighteenth Century.--Singers' nicknames.--Farinelli's one note. [Sidenote: QUEEN CHRISTINA AND FERRI.]