The regular performance of Italian opera, sung in Italian, has been carried on in London almost without interruption for about two centuries. We may date its beginning from 1705, when Vanbrugh's new theatre in the Haymarket was opened with Gli Amori d’Ergasto by Jacob Greber, and we may conveniently take 1891 as the date of its official end, since in 1892 Augustus Harris ceased to call his enterprise “Royal Italian Opera” and announced it simply as “Royal Opera.” As far as I know no history of this Italian opera organisation has ever been written, although there is plenty of information about it available in various separate books, as well as documentary sources of all kinds such as contemporary newspapers, librettos, programmes and so forth.