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The score was written in 1685 by Louis Grabu in imitation of French opera. It was written as a tribute to King Charles II , and after his death was intended to apply to his successor James II . Based in style on a pre- message includes a figure representing Shaftesbury "with Fiend's Wings, and snakes twisted round his body; he is encompassed by several fanatical rebellious heads, who suck poison from him, which runs out of a tap in his side." After the period of court mourning for the late King and many other delays, the sumptuous production (costing the company over £4000 to mount) had its premiere on 3 June of 1689 . In addition, events of the five years of James's reign, quickly rendered the adulatory allegory of Dryden's machinery no longer current. When ''Albion and Albanius'' came to be printed, Dryden's ''Preface'' was the first explication of opera in the English language. "An opera is a poetical tale, or fiction, represented by vocal and instrumental music, adorned with scenes, machines and dancing," Dryden informed his readers. The "machines" were required to effect the dramatic changes of scenery the action required. Pointing out that the persons were supernatural or heroic, Dryden linked his work with the genre we would call '' retained for a century, as long as the librettos of Metastasio were being set, into the age of Mozart. In the 17th-century Italian operas that Dryden admitted were his general models— and the French ones that he did not mention— the recitative drove the action, and the arias— "which for want of a proper English word, I must call the ''songish part''"— were meant to please the ear rather than gratify the understanding. SOURCES
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