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• Classical Era
• Composer

1745–1814 English composer Dibdin began his career as a chorus singer at the Covent Garden Theatre, London. He composed many English operas and other dramatic pieces, spending most of his life around the London theatres and pleasure gardens (with journeys to France to elude his creditors and other enemies). His chief success came with his one-man ‘Table Entertainments’, songs ...

• Personalities
• Classical Era
• Opera

1745–1814, English In the late eighteenth century, Charles Dibdin – composer, actor and singer – catered for the English taste for Singspiels and afterpieces, which were short operas or pantomimes provided as extra entertainment after the main work had finished. Initially, Dibdin favoured the Italianate style, but after The Waterman (1774), he turned to a ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Classical Era
• Librettist

writer and a sharp, perceptive wit. Da Ponte remains one of the best-known names in the history of libretto writing. Introduction | Classical Era | Classical Personalities | Charles Dibdin | Classical Era | Classical ...

• Personalities
• Classical Era
• Opera

, he moved on to the United States, where he established the Italian Opera House in New York in 1833. Introduction | Classical Era | Opera Personalities | Charles Dibdin | Classical Era | Opera ...

• Personalities
• Classical Era
• Opera

1748–1829, English William Shield, who was both composer and librettist, belonged to a trio of musicians (with Charles Dibdin and Stephen Storace) who dominated the English comic opera stage in the late eighteenth century. Shield started out as an apprentice boat builder, but moved on to become a violinist. In 1772, he arrived in London from ...