On this day in 1740, James Thomson's masque, Alfred the Great was first performed, an open-air presentation before the Prince and Princess of Wales. The premiere was a birthday present for the Princess, though if others found the history and didactics to require a "great labour of the brain," the occasion must have demanded the four-year-old Princess Augusta's very best manners. The music would have helped: amid the lessons on Alfred's greatness and the prophetic visions of future glory were seven songs, one of which, "Rule, Britannia!" became immediately and enduringly popular. In subsequent revisions and adaptations of Alfred by Thomson's co-writer, David Mallet, and composer Thomas Arne, only this one air was left untouched; it is now Britain's unofficial national anthem, the last two lines of the opening stanza turned into a chorus and into the most enthusiastic moment of every Last Night of the Proms ... FULL STORY »
