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THE

CABINET;

OR, MONTHLY REPORT OF

POLITE LITERATURE.

MAY 1807.

WILLIAM REEVE, Esq.

His father

MR. REEVE is a native of London. was an auctioneer of much reputation in his time, and the son was destined for the same occupation; but having discovered at an early age a taste for music, and expressing a strong desire to study that science, he was placed under the late Mr. Richardson, Organist of St. James's Church, and one of the pupils of the celebrated Dr. Pepusch. At the expiration of his articles he commenced a teacher of the piano forte, but becoming particularly attached to theatrical pursuits, he undertook, in the year 1781, the management and tuition of the chorus singers. at the King's Theatre, at the time when Giordani was composer of the comic opera. Giordani was to have been the conductor of this concern, but owing to party cabal, he was obliged to relinquish his claims in favour of M. Le Texier; and Mr. Reeve, after wasting much time and labour in preparing pupils for the business of the Italian Opera, felt himself under the necessity of retiring with his principal.

In consequence of this disappointment, he accepted the situation of organist at Totnes in Devonshire, where as a teacher he had full employment, and was greatly respected in the county. But his ambition was not to be satisfied with provincial fame; and in this remote situation, he could have no opportunity of trying the

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talents which he had cultivated as a composer.

At the end of about two years, therefore, he returned to London, and produced some comic burlettas at Mr. Astley's Amphitheatre, during the first season of its stage exhibitions. He succeeded so well, that the late Mr. Palmer engaged him as Composer of the Royalty on his opening that unfortunate theatre.

Here Mr. Reeve had the advantage of composing for some eminent vocal performers, and soon acquired considerable celebrity. He composed and selected the music of Don Juan, Hero and Leander, Harlequin Mungo, &c. which completely established his reputation; and when Mr. Shield, two or three years after the close of the theatre in Goodman's Fields, quitted Covent Garden, Mr. Reeve was engaged by Mr. Harris, as composer and conductor of the musical department. Oscar and Malvina was produced in the first season of his engagement. Mr. Shield, previously to his resignation, had selected the greater part of the Scots airs for the action of the piece, and Mr. Reeve furnished the overture, and all the vocal music that was new. The great merit of this overture is evinced by its popularity; and the sale of it has been almost unexampled. His subsequent compositions for this theatre are uncommonly numerous: Raymond and Agnes; Harlequin and Oberon; The Round Tower; Joan of Arc; Harlequin Quixote, and many other pieces of a similar description. In conjunction with Mr. Mazzinghi, he supplied the music of Ramah Droog; Paul and Virginia; The Blind Girl; Turnpike Gate, and Chains of the Heart: he also joined Mr. Braham in the composition of the Cabinet ; Family Quarrels; Thirty Thousand; and Lake of Lausanne; and is the author of the whole of the music of the popular after-piece of the Caravan, produced at Drury Lane.

All these operas having been eminently successful, the sale of the music has, of course, been highly profitable to Mr. Reeve, and as he has constantly been mindful of those prudential maxims, without a proper attention to which the best talents merely serve to reduce their possessors to poverty and contempt, he has now the satisfaction of finding himself in possession of a respectable independence, the fair acquisition, and honourable reward, of his own genius and exertions.

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Though the talents of Mr. Reeve, as a composer, are. not limited to any particular style of performance, there is certainly one department of operatic music in which he is successful almost without a rival: we mean, in the adapting comic songs and duetts for the stage. He is perfectly aware of the wants and wishes of an English audience, and knowing where the airs may be fitly introduced, as well as the peculiar capabilities of the performers who are to sing them, his compositions are always full of character, and produce a very pleasing theatrical effect; a knowledge in which our composers, in general, are exceedingly deficient.

Four years ago, Mr. Reeve purchased a share of the Theatre at Sadler's Wells, which has also proved a Iucrative speculation.

JOHN OPIE, Esq.

[We had made some arrangements for obtaining a memoir of this eminent and lamented Painter for our next Cabinet; but as Mr. Hoare has devoted the seventh Number of his ARTIST, (which appeared just as we were preparing this sheet for the press,) to the memory of MR, OPIE, and given some biographical anecdotes of him, on the authenticity of which we can rely, with an eulogium on his character, as just as it is ingenious and elegant; we have taken the liberty of making the following extract from that valuable publication; and in our ensuing number we propose to carry on the Biography from the period where Mr. Hoare has dropped it.]

JOHN OPIE was born in May, 1761, in the parish of St. Agnes, about seven miles from the town of Truro. His father and grandfather were reputable master carpenters in that neighbourhood. His mother was descended from the ancient and respectable family of Tonkin, of Trevawnance in Cornwall, and amongst his ancestors in that line, is mentioned the author of a valuable history of Cornwall, which was left nearly finished, and is at present in the possession of Lord De Dunstanville.

He was very early remarkable for the strength of his understanding, and for the rapidity with which he acquired all the learning that a village school could afford him. When ten years old, he was not only able to solve

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