Between 1733 and 1776, English composer Thomas Arne wrote music for about 90 stage works, including plays, masques, pantomimes, and opera. Many of his dramatic scores are now lost, probably in the disastrous fire at Covent Garden in 1808. One that has survived is the pastoral opera Thomas and Sally, which was first produced at Covent Garden in 1760. Cast in two acts, it was described as a dramatic pastoral and served as an appendix, so to speak, to the main play of the evening. The librettist was Isaac Bickerstaff, who provided Arne with a slight plot revolving around four characters: Sally, her sailor lover Thomas, a squire who tries to woo Sally while Thomas is away at sea, and Dorcas, a matron who encourages the Squire. Thomas and Sally is of particular note for being the first English comic opera to be sung throughout, most previous (and many subsequent) examples having spoken dialogue. The nautical flavor of the libretto gave Arne the opportunity to introduce a sturdy score that also includes a rousing hunting song for the Squire. Sally's songs are cast in simple buffo style, although the role was originally created by Arne's protégée, Charlotte Brent, who boasted a formidable range of coloratura, which Arne fully employed in his English opera seria Artaxerxes, two years later.

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