Charles Edward Horn

Charles Edward Horn (21 June 1786 – 21 October 1849) was an English composer and singer.

Life and career Horn was born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, to Charles Frederick Horn and his wife, Diana Dupont. He was the eldest of their seven children. His father taught him music; he also took music lessons briefly in 1808 from singer Venanzio Rauzzini in Bath, Somerset. Horn made his singing debut on 26 June 1809 with a performance in the comic opera Up All Night, or the Smuggler's Cave (words by Samuel James Arnold and music by Matthew Peter King) at Lyceum Theatre, London. Horn continued singing, including a well-received turn in 1814 as Seraskier in Stephen Storace's The Siege of Belgrade. He achieved prominence with his portrayal of Caspar in the English version of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz in 1824.

In 1827, Horn sailed to New York City, where he made a successful American debut. In addition to giving singing performances, he staged works by Storace, Weber, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Gioachino Rossini. He briefly returned to London for a few years, overseeing the debut of his Honest Frauds (1830) and serving as music director of the Olympic Theatre from 1831 to 1832, before sailing back to New York. There, he became the music director of Park Theatre, producing and directing performances of his own works and arrangements of works by others. and in 1838 to Maria Horton (d. 1887) and had one son, Charles, who became a tenor.