An Opera about the ‘Progress of Music’: Charles Burney, Domenico Corri’s The Travellers (1806) and the Macartney Embassy to China 1792-94

Premiered in London 12 years after the unsuccessful return of the first British embassy to China, led by Lord George Macartney, Domenico Corri’s s five-act ‘dramatic opera,’ The Travellers or Music’s Fascination (1806), is a
unique work exhibiting concrete connections to the embassy in its dramatic concept, musical and visual sources. This essay explores how the subject of the opera—tracing the ‘progress of music’ from China to Britain—reflected the contemporary discussion about Chinese music, articulated most clearly by Charles Burney, who held a significant interest in the embassy’s musical exchange. By incorporating a Chinese melody and ‘realistic’ visual representation connected to the embassy, the opera reconstructs certain ceremonies and musical experience witnessed by the members of the embassy. Interestingly, the opera balances firsthand knowledge of Chinese music and culture with an emerging imperialist view, and dramatizes the aim of the embassy to show British advancement in the arts and sciences.