- John James Heidegger
John James (Johann Jacob) Heidegger (1659–1749), Swiss count and leading
impresario of masquerades in the early part of the 18th century.The son of a
Zürich clergyman, Johann Jacob Heidegger, came to England in 1708 as a Swiss negotiator. He failed in his undertaking, and was involved in difficulties. So he entered as a private in the Guards, and afterwards became influential in the management of the opera. In 1709 he made five hundred guineas by furnishing the spectacle forMotteux 's opera of "Tomyris, Queen of Scythia".From 1710 on, as part of a new commercial public entertainment, he promoted
masquerade ball s at theHaymarket Theatre . The fashionable world ofLondon was enthusiastic about it and called Heidegger 'the Swiss Count'. Though moralists protested and clergymen preached against such activities, the carnivalesque phenomenon became a trend throughout 18th-centuryLondon . In 1724,William Hogarth published asatire on Heidegger in his print, "Masquerades and Operas". By that time, masquerades were equally reputed for their great popularity and immoral influences. Indeed, much of the occasion's popularity resulted from the aura of sexual danger and mystery, as women of pleasure were also constantly present.In 1727, during the coronation of King George II in Westminster Hall, he provided a spectacle of lighting 1800 candles in under three minutes. He had used a burnable connector that ran from candle to candle. According to the poet
Thomas Gray , the Queen and her ladies "were in no small terror" as trains offlax were set alight and flames ran swiftly from candle to candle. The expiring flax fell in large flakes upon the heads of those beneath but, fortunately, did no harm.In 1728 Heidegger was called in to nurse the
Opera , which throve by his bold puffing. In 1729Handel and Heidegger were permitted to produce operas at the King's Theatre by The Royal Academy in London. "I was born," Heidegger himself said, "a Swiss, and came toEngland without a farthing, where I have found means to gain 5000 a year, — and to spend it. Now I defy the ablest Englishman to go toSwitzerland and either gain that income or spend it there." He died, in 1749, at the age of 90.
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