A man of varied abilities, the English composer Charles Dibdin seems to have learnt from early activity as a singer in the London theatre, where he later took character parts. He was employed as a composer at Covent Garden and then by David Garrick at Drury Lane, contributed to musical repertoire at Ranelagh Gardens, and provided entertainments for Sadler’s Wells. In 1776 his debts and domestic complications forced him to move to France, but two years later he returned to London, where involvement in a new theatre project led to a debtors’ prison. Free once more, he decided in 1787 to sail to India, raising money for the venture by touring the provinces with his songs. In the event, however, he abandoned the voyage at Torbay and continued his popular entertainments in London, writing novels, publishing a periodical, and continuing to increase the repertoire of popular character songs.
Stage Works and Songs
Early in his career Dibdin collaborated with the writer Isaac Bickerstaffe in a series of popular English operas, including Love in the City, Lionel and Clarissa and The Recruiting Sergeant. Later he wrote his own libretti, some adapted from French. His other works include pantomimes, dialogues for Sadler’s Wells, so-called ‘Table Entertainments’, and a very large number of songs.