[1] Arne was a leading British theatre composer of the 18th century, working at the West End's Drury Lane and Covent Garden.

Arne was so keen on music that he smuggled a spinet into his room and, damping the sounds with his handkerchief, would secretly practise during the night while the rest of the family slept.

Festing not only taught him to play the violin, but also took him to various musical events, including going to compete against Thomas Roseingrave for the post of organist at Hanover Square, and a visit to Oxford in 1733 to hear George Frideric Handel's oratorio Athalia.

Following this disclosure of his son's real interest and talent, he was persuaded (again probably by Festing) to allow the young Arne to give up his legal career and to pursue music as a living.

On 15 March 1737,[6] Arne married singer Cecilia Young, whose sister, Isabella, was the wife of John Frederick Lampe.

[7] In 1742 Arne went with his wife to Dublin, where he remained two years and produced his oratorio The Death of Abel, of which only the melody known as the Hymn of Eve survives, and some stage works; he also gave a number of successful concerts.

[8] On his return to London in 1744 he was engaged as leader of the band at Drury Lane theatre, and the following year as composer at Vauxhall Gardens.

During the 1760s Arne transferred his services to Covent Garden Theatre,[9] and frequently collaborated with the Irish writer Isaac Bickerstaffe.

It was frequently performed in London into the 1830s and, other than Michael William Balfe's The Bohemian Girl, it was the most popular full-length English opera before the 20th century.

[12][13] In a 1791 visit to London, Joseph Haydn was impressed by a performance of ″Artaxerxes″ he attended and admitted that he had no idea such an opera existed in the English language.