Milan Regio Ducal Teatro: Unrecorded handbill (proof copy) advertising operas.

[Regio Ducal Teatro di Milano] / [Opera] / [Dance] / [Printer’s Proof]. Giorni destinati per il Ballo pubblico, da eseguirsi nel Regio Ducal Teatro di Milano, per il Carnovale 1762. [Milan], s.n., dated in manuscript 14 December 1761. [29.9 x 20.0 cm], [1] f. letterpress leaf. Contemporary annotation at upper margin, mend on verso to hole at center of sheet, minor wrinkling.
 
 
Unrecorded handbill advertising dates for operas & public balls to be held at the Regio Ducal Teatro di Milano during the 1762 Carnival season, here in copy with manuscript annotations indicating that it was a printer’s proof or sample copy. The rather large sheet records 20 dates between 17 January and 27 February 1762 on which an “Opera, e Ballo” were scheduled. At the top of the sheet is written, “1761. 14. Dic[embr]e. Stampato cop[ie] 800 p[er] il Regio Ducal Teatro,” showing that 800 copies of the handbill were printed for the theater in advance of the start of Carnevale. Ephemeral items of any sort from 18th-century Italian opera venues are today very rare and those carrying information from the print shop are especially so.
 
The Milan Regio Ducal Teatro opened on 26 December 1717. Giampiero Tintori and Maria Maddalena Schito record all of the operas and ballets held at the theater during its six decades of operation in their Regio Ducal Teatro di Milano (1717-1778): Cronologia delle opere e dei balli (1998). The Regio Ducal Teatro di Milano was destroyed by fire on 25 February 1776 following a Carnival gala of the sort advertised here.
 
 
OPAC, KVK, and OCLC do not locate any examples of this handbill.
 
* Giampiero Tintori and Maria Maddalena Schito, eds., Regio Ducal Teatro di Milano (1717-1778): Cronologia delle opere e dei balli; Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell, Opera and Ballet at the Regio Ducal Teatro of Milan, 1771-1776: A Musical and Social History.