Three opera dancers, holding a garland of roses, are dressed alike in short transparent petticoats partly covered by a shorter apron. The centre dancer holds out her left leg horizontally (cf. Bmsat 8894). Mme rose is in back view, her sharp features in profile to the right. On each side of the stage is a column on the plinth of which stands a figure: (left) a satyr holding a mask; (right) a woman wearing a clumsy undergarment, in the attitude of the venus dei medici. In front of the stage are the musical instruments of the orchestra, including a violin on which is a cap perhaps intended for a bonnet-rouge. Beneath:
tis hard for such new fangled orthodox rules,
that our opera-troop, should be blam'd,
"since like our first parents, they only, poor fools,
"danc'd naked, & were not asham'd! - morning herald. ' 14 march 1798
hand-coloured etching. Date: 1798. Dimensions: Height: 255 mm; Width: 353 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: Mme Rose Didelot. Collection: British Museum. Operatical Reform;-or- la Dance a l'Eveque. (BM 1868,0808.6709 1)
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