The Duenna's 230-year elopement

Byron called it 'the best opera ever'. So why hasn't The Duenna been staged for 230 years?The early life of 18th-century playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan sounds like the stuff of opera. As a penniless young man, he eloped to France with Elizabeth Linley, a beautiful singer who was the toast of Bath. Although their Calais wedding turned out to be invalid, Sheridan returned to Bath and fought two duels with one of Elizabeth's admirers, before marrying her lawfully.Never slow to ransack his own...

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