These operas by Cherubini are among the latest additions to our digital scores collection; find them, and many others, in Digital Scores and Libretti:

Luigi Cherubini. "Guide mes pas," Les Deux Journées. Mus 637.1.663

Luigi Cherubini. "Guide mes pas," Les Deux Journées. Mus 637.1.663

Les deux journées : opéra comique en 3 actes / paroles de J.N. Bouilly; musique de Cherubini; partition de piano et chant. Paris: M. Schlesinger, [1837?]. Mus 637.1.663

A vocal score of Cherubini’s most successful opera, premiered in 1800 at the Théâtre Feydeau and repeatedly revived during the first half of the nineteenth century. Bouilly purportedly based his libretto – a story of political persecution, disguises, narrow escapes, and eventual reconciliations – on events he witnessed during the French Revolution, but the action of Les deux journées is shifted to 1647, during Cardinal Mazarin’s time as Chief Minister.

Faniska

Cherubini’s only Singspiel, written for the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna and premiered on February 25, 1806. Joseph Sonnleithner’s libretto, based on Pixérécourt’s melodrama Les Mines de Pologne, bears some similarity to the captivity and rescue plot of Lodoïska, down to the dramatic third-act attack on the villain’s castle.

Luigi Cherubini. Manuscript of Terzetto, Faniska. Mus 637.1.690

Luigi Cherubini. Manuscript of Terzetto, Faniska. Mus 637.1.690

  • Faniska : eine grosse Oper in drey Akten ; vollständiger Klavierauszug von A. E. Müller. Leipzig : A. Kühnel, [between 1806 and 1809]. Mus 637.1.690

    This copy of an early vocal score has a two-page manuscript of Oranski’s part of the 1st act Terzetto, in an unidentified hand, tipped in following the printed score.
     

  • Faniska : opéra en trois actes : représenté à Vienne le 25 Février 1806 : paroles italiennes / musique de Cherubini ; avec accompagnement de piano par A. Fessy. Paris : Chez tous les editeurs de musique ; Leipzig : Chez Breitkopf et Haertel, [184-?]. Merritt Room Mus 637.1.685

    An Italian full score of the opera, with piano reduction added for rehearsal.

Luigi Cherubini. Title page, Medea. Mus 637.1.645.5

Luigi Cherubini. Title page, Medea. Mus 637.1.645.5

Medea : tragedia in trè atti / di L. Cherubini. Milano : R. Fantuzzi, [1910?]. Mus 637.1.645.5

While Médée was revived in several German productions during the nineteenth century, its first performance in Italy did not occur until December 30, 1909. La Scala used an Italian version by Carlo Zangarini, with Franz Paul Lachner’s recitative settings of the dialogue, composed for the 1855 Frankfurt production.

This edition of the vocal score features a title page illustration by the painter and theatrical designer Giuseppe Palanti, known to La Scala audiences for his set and costume designs, as well as the advertising posters he created for the publishing house Ricordi.1

– Kerry Masteller

1. See Vittoria Crespi Morbio, “Il teatro,” in Giuseppe Palanti: Pittura, teatro, pubblicità, disegno, 66-84 (Torino: U. Allemandi, c2001).