Lodoïska

Lodoïska is an opera by Luigi Cherubini to a French libretto by Claude-François Fillette-Loraux after an episode from Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai’s novel, Les amours du chevalier de Faublas. It takes the form of a comédie héroïque (a type of opéra comique) in three acts, and was a founding work of rescue opera. It has also been called one of the first Romantic operas, though Cherubini's work was basically classical.

Stephen Willis has explained the importance of the work: "With Lodoïska Cherubini turned his back on his training as an Italian composer of opera seria, choosing the freer form of opéra comique over the more stilted and confining tragédie lyrique and embarking on a course of development of opéra comique which was to lead to the eradication of almost all differences between the two genres, except for the spoken dialogue."Willis, Stephen C (1992), 'Lodoïska' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie

Performance history

It was first performed at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris on 18 July 1791.

The opera was received enthusiastically and ran for 200 performances. It was so popular that it was revived again at the Feydeau in 1819 and was performed...
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