Opera Scotland

Luigi Cherubini Suggest updates

Born Florence, c14 September 1760.

Died Paris, 15 March 1842.

Italian composer.

Luigi Cherubini, during the mature phase of his career, was one of the most influential figures in the development of music in France. Lodoïska is an important forerunner, at least in terms of plot, of Beethoven's Fidelio. Médée, probably his masterpiece, takes the classical world of Gluck's operas and adds an intensity that can be frightening in performance. From the mid-nineteenth century until recently, it was performed only in a bastardized version with recitatives by Franz Lachner. It is now known to be far more effective in its original version, even though great singing actors have triumphed in the title-role in both versions.

Cherubini was greatly admired by Beethoven, and for the last two decades of his life, was director of the Paris Conservatoire, and a noted teacher.

Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:

Quinto Fabio (1780) ()

Armida abbandonata (1782) ()

Adriano in Siria (1782) ()

Mesenzio (1782) ()

Lo sposo di tre, marito di nessuna (Venice 1783) (Livigni)

Idalide (1784) ()

Alessandro nell'Indie (1784) ()

Demetrio (1785) ()

La finta principessa (London 1785) (Livigni)

Artaserse (1785) ()

Giulio Sabino (1786) ()

Didone abbandonata (1786) ()

Ifigenia in Aulide (Turin 1788) (Moretti)

Démophoön (Paris 1788) (Marmontel)

Lodoïska (Paris 1791) (Fillette-Loraux)

Koukourgi (1793 unperf; rev as ‘Ali Baba’ 1833) ()

Elisa, ou Le Voyage au Mont-Bernard (Paris 1794) (Saint-Cyr)

Médée (Paris 1797; rev Lachner, Frankfurt 1855) (Hoffmann; tr Zangarini)

L'Hôtellerie Portugaise (Paris 1798) (Aignan)

La Punition (1799) ()

La Prisonnière (1799) ()

Les deux journées, ou Le porteur d’eau (Paris 1800) (Bouilly)

Epicure (1800) ()

Anacréon, ou L’amour fugitif (Paris 1803) (Mendouze)

Faniska (Vienna 1806) (Sonnleithner)

Pimmalione (Paris 1809) (Vestris)

Le Crescendo (1810) ()

Les Abencérages, ou L’Étendard de Grenade (Paris 1813) (de Jouy)

Ali Baba, ou Les Quarante Voleurs (Paris 1833) (Scribe & Mèlesville)