Luigi Cherubini, Koukourgi (1792)

Cherubini was Beethoven's favorite, supposedly. He had a long, fruitful career in which--in addition to lots of other music--thirty-some operas. But for whatever reason, the only one anyone seems to care about is Médée--or Medea, as the case may be. You can see that one in multiple productions, in either the French or Italian version...but that's all. Well, except for this one. Why is that? Well, for reasons that I can't find any information about but that I think had something to do with it being composed in revolutionary France, this was not performed in Cherubini's lifetime. Later on in his life, a few pieces were reused for a different opera, but this 2010 production is the first time the original has ever been performed. And it's captured on disc for all to enjoy!

Médée is...well, it's Medea. This one is completely tonally different, a comedy prefiguring the operettas of the nineteenth century. It takes place in ancient China, or at least someone's questionable idea of ancient China. The romantic hero is Amazan: he wants to marry his sweetheart, Zulma, only there's also a fight with Tartars going on at the same time. And there's also Koukourgi, the son of a general, who wants to marry Zulma, only he's cowardly and gluttonous but (in theory) loveable. Also, did somebody think these names sounded in any way Chinese? Because I think they may have been mistaken. Western perceptions of the Orient are an interesting subject, for sure. It would be rewarding to really get into this and figure out where name like these come from. ANYWAY. Naturally, Amazon Gets the Girl, but you know, everything's cool. Everyone's happy. It's fine! Stop complaining!

Yeah. What can I say? The plot is fairly loosey-goosey, but the opera on the whole is a lot of fun. It is, granted, true that Koukourgi's...moves on Zulma may look, to our sensibilities, more like low-level sexual harassment than the zany fun they would presumably have seemed to at the time, but let's face it: if you insist on your operas having worldviews that always match your own...we can probably safely say that opera isn't for you. I mean, not that I don't respect your convictions, but I think you are very severely limiting yourself if you're too much of a purist in that regard.

So yeah. Having seen both of Cherubini's operas that one can easily see, I can safely say that I like him a lot and I hope his other works receive more attention in the future. Thank you for reading.