Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

http://www.bridgeman.co.uk/search/view_image2.asp?image_id=124833
"M.RC.N...TI's Leap from the Opera, or The Ballet Turned into a Ball", pub. by G. Humphrey, 1823 (coloured etching)
Caricature of Maria Mercandotti (b.c.1801) retiring from the stage to marry for money;
Spanish dancer said to be the daughter of James Duff, 4th Earl of Fife;
married Edward Hughes Ball Hughes (d.1863) [a member of ‘Prinny’s Set’];
Artist - Cruikshank, Isaac Robert (1789-1856)
http://www.tecla.com/extras/0001/0007/0007intro.htm
The twelve songs [Doce Canciones] by Federico Moretti (c. 1765-1838) form one of the finest works by this composer: a work
which is finished, carefully polished, and planned as a unity. They are twelve love-songs arranged in the form of a song-cycle, all of
them with similar accompaniments, an instrumental introduction and ending, a carefully worked-out musical form, and a close
attention to detail. It is clear that this collection is not merely an assembly of twelve separate songs, but a planned unity; not merely
a divertissement, but a work of art planned on a relatively large scale.
The Doce Canciones were published not in Spain but in England, almost certainly because of the upheaval caused by Napoleon's
invasion of Spain in 1808 and the Peninsular War which lasted until 1813. They were printed by the London firm of Clementi,
Banger, Collard, Davis & Collard, which existed only from about 1810 to about 1818. Moretti dedicated them to the Englishman
James Duff, fourth Earl Fife, who like Moretti became an officer in the Spanish army. Fife left Spain for England in 1811, and it
seems a likely conjecture that when he left Spain he took with him the manuscript of the Doce Canciones, to have them printed in
London. The date of composition of these songs, then, seems to be 1811 or shortly before; and their date of publication about 1812,
and certainly between 1811 and 1818.
The title-page calls Moretti 'Colonel of the Legion of Foreign Volunteers', and in this context Moretti's friendship with Lord Fife falls
into place. Both of them soldiers and officers, both of them foreigners in Spain, they shared an enthusiasm for Spanish music and
dance: Moretti for example composed some songs in the native Spanish seguidilla form, while it was Fife who discovered the
dancer Maria Mercandotti in Spain while she was still a child, brought her to England, and launched her on a career in ballet which
was to make her famous throughout Europe.
Green Room of the Opera House
http://www.lordprice.co.uk/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?store_code=LPOS&screen=PROD&product_code=STOB1007
http://www.dandyism.net/?page_id=192
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