One of my favourites composers

Thomas Augustine Arne (March 12, 1710 - March 5, 1778) was an English composer, best known for his patriotic song Rule Britannia, part of an aria from his opera Alfred, for their concert "Last night of the Proms" and musical adaptations for staging of William Shakespeare.
Arne was born in Covent Garden area of ​​London, in the bosom of a family that had prospered from upholstery business. He attended Eton College and from his earliest youth he was interested in music. A meeting with Michael Festing gave him the opportunity to indulge his interest, but his father still would make him a lawyer.

Photo by Aulis Vierhovssen

Arne's sister, Susannah Maria Arne, was a famous contralto who participated in any of his works, including his first opera, Rosamund, composed in 1733. It was his brother who taught him to sing, which he learned in 1732, along with his brother Richard. In 1736, Arne married another singer, Cecilia Young (whose sister Isabella was married to composer John Frederick Lampe). The operas and masquerades Arne became very popular and even received the patronage of Frederick Louis of Hanover, in whose house, Cliveden, wrote Rule Britannia.
In 1750, after an argument with David Garrick, Susannah followed at Covent Garden Theatre. In 1755, he separated from his wife, claiming she was mentally ill. Meanwhile he had begun a relationship with one of his pupils, Charlotte Brend, a soprano with whom he had a child prodigy and participated in some of his works. She later married a violinist. In 1777, shortly before his death, Arne and his wife were reconciled. They had a son, Michael Arne.
Most of the work of Arne order is lyrical, his symphonies, overtures, concertos for organ, etc.. are generally adaptations of his more than 90 operas and masquerades. Much of this work is lost, burned during the fire of Covent Garden Theatre, 1808.
In 1762 premiered at Covent Garden in London Artaxerxe his opera, and in 1765 the Olympics, this time at the Haymarket Theatre, both operas with libretto by Pietro Metastasio.