jan 1, 1779 - - "The Critic" by Richard Sheridan - Samuel Johnson published "Lives of the English Poets"

Description:

- in Johnson's piece on James Hughes he launched his famous broadside against the Italian opera - it was not against opera as a genre but the fact of performers singing in foreign languages (incomprehensible)

- songs in Sheridan's "The Critic" trio in French and duet in Italian fall under Johnson's criticism
- since "The Critic" attacks the exotic and irrational everywhere else, it could be that (while Sheridan pleases the audience), he is also advancing his own criticism of this entertainment - he would have had first hand experience of this in his management of the Italian opera house at King's Theatre

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