Silk and satin theatre programmes were frequently produced in the 18th and 19th centuries to commemorate special theatrical and musical events, the less expensive ones with integral fringing made from fraying cut edges, and the more expensive with separately applied silk or metallic fringes. This beautifully presented programme was produced for a Special Grand Concert in a series of promenade concerts at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, mounted by its lessee Mr. William Freeman Thomas, 29th November 1883.
The evening included both light, operatic and classical music by the composers Gioachino Rossini, Georges Bizet, George Frederic Handel, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Léo Delibes, John Liptrot Hatton, Charles Gounoud, Joseph Haydn, John Braham, Amilcare Ponchielli, Franz Schubert, Charles Dibdin, Wilhelm Taubert, Claribel (Charlotte Barnard), Ambrose Thomas, Frederic Hymen Cowen, Louis Antoine Jullien and Giuseppe Verdi. Songs were sung by Charles Santley, Madame Lemmens-Sherrington, Sims Reeves, and Miss Damian, and included Dibdin's 1841 song <i>Tom Bowling, </i>sung at the Henry Wood promenade concerts today.
The orchestra and band of the Coldstream Guards played, and the principal conductor was Arthur Gwyllym Crowe (1825-1894). Other musicians named on the programme were the cellist Edward Howell, the flautist Mr. W.L. Barrett, and the oboist Mr. H. Smith