The Siege of Rhodes

The Siege of Rhodes is a 1656 opera written to a text by the impresario William Davenant. The score is by five composers, the vocal music by Henry Lawes, Matthew Locke, and Captain Henry Cooke, and the instrumental music by Charles Coleman and George Hudson. It is considered to be the first English opera.

The opera depicts the 1522 siege of Rhodes by the Ottoman Navy of Suleiman the Magnificent. The opera debuted in a small private theatre at Davenant's Rutland House, as dramatic performances were outlawed and all public theatres had been closed by the Puritan government of Oliver Cromwell. Davenant still had to obtain a special permission for his work to be performed, but he convinced Cromwell's government that it was merely a production of "recitative music" instead of a new type of dramatic performance.

This opera's debut featured a performance by Catherine Coleman, England's first professional actress. Coleman was a daughter of the composer Alfonso Ferrabosco, and was married at the time to the professional musician Edward Coleman. In the 1661 revival of the opera, the main female role of Roxelana, chief consort of Suleiman the Magnificent, was performed by Hester Davenport.