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Inkle and Yarico is a comic opera first staged in London, England in August 1787, with music by Samuel Arnold and a libretto by George Colman the Younger.
The opera was highly successful, performed 98 times at the Haymarket Theatre, and a total of 164 performances on London stages by 1800.
One of the most famous actresses to play the part of Yarico was Elizabeth Satchell.
There were also performances in Dublin (1787), Jamaica (1788), New York (1789), Philadelphia (1790), Calcutta (1791), and Boston (1794).
Richard Steele's Spectator printed another version in March 1711, in which Yarico is a Native American, sold into slavery while bearing Inkle's child.
Composer James McConnel was commissioned to compose a score for Inkle'n Yarico in 1997, and this was performed at the 1999 Edinburgh Festival.
In 2006, a reconstruction of Arnold's original opera was performed by Opera East at Magdalene College, Cambridge, conducted by Oliver Gooch and directed by Alistair Boag. The libretto was prepared by Richard Luckett and the score was orchestrated by Benjamin Chewter for the vocal and instrumental forces that Samuel Arnold had at his disposal at the Haymarket Theatre.
The opera was highly successful, performed 98 times at the Haymarket Theatre, and a total of 164 performances on London stages by 1800.
One of the most famous actresses to play the part of Yarico was Elizabeth Satchell.
There were also performances in Dublin (1787), Jamaica (1788), New York (1789), Philadelphia (1790), Calcutta (1791), and Boston (1794).
Inkle, an English trader, is shipwrecked in the West Indies, and survives with the help of Yarico, an Indian maiden. They fall in love, but when Inkle returns to his civilization, he plans to sell Yarico into slavery to recover his financial losses while he marries a woman, Narcissa, who will give him the social standing he wants. In the end, Inkle repents and marries the faithful Yarico.
The supposedly true story first appeared in Richard Ligon's book A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes (1657).
Richard Steele's Spectator printed another version in March 1711, in which Yarico is a Native American, sold into slavery while bearing Inkle's child.
Inkle and Yarico only survives in vocal score, and in 1996 composer Roxanna Panufnik was commissioned by the Holders Opera Festival, Barbados, to recompose the opera for modern symphony orchestra and steel pan. The production premiered at the festival on 15 March 1997, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with British soloist Rachel Hayward performing the solo pan part.
Composer James McConnel was commissioned to compose a score for Inkle'n Yarico in 1997, and this was performed at the 1999 Edinburgh Festival.
In 2006, a reconstruction of Arnold's original opera was performed by Opera East at Magdalene College, Cambridge, conducted by Oliver Gooch and directed by Alistair Boag. The libretto was prepared by Richard Luckett and the score was orchestrated by Benjamin Chewter for the vocal and instrumental forces that Samuel Arnold had at his disposal at the Haymarket Theatre.
- excerpt from Linda V. Troost's The Rise of the Comic Opera
- Original 1711 Spectator text
- Roxanna Panufnik's official website
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