Cherubini: Les deux journées

Opera no 1

Cherubini: Les deux journées

Soloists

chorus musicus köln

das neue orchester

Christoph Spering

This is my project for 2026. I want to listen to 100 operas by 100 different composers. I can’t guarantee to have the time to listen to a complete opera every day but should be able to manage roughly two a week, which would bring me up to 100.  As far as possible I am going to listen to pieces I have not heard before but there will be a few examples where the opera is not completely new but I don’t know it well and want to get more familiar with it. Where possible I will link in this blog to the relevant day in last year’s blog discussing the particular composer.

Cherubini’s operas have not completely disappeared from the repertoire, thanks mainly to Medea, which was one of Maria Callas’s most celebrated roles. Of course that Medea was a quite different Cherubini's to Cherubini's original Médée. It was sung in Italian and had recitatives by Lachner to replace the spoken dialogue. I saw the original version at Buxton years ago and it made a strong impression.

Les deux journées is also know as The Water Carrier - Beecham made a radio broadcast of it under that name. It is an opéra comique, that is it has spoken dialogue rather than recitative. The story is very simple. A politician is rescued from revolutionary soldiers by a humble water carrier. It turns out that the water carrier’s son was himself rescued as a child by that very same politician. All ends happily ever after when the queen offers all of the politicians involved a free pardon.

I had heard the overture before - it is a full-length piece with tremendous rhythmic energy - you can see why Beethoven so admired Cherubini.  What comes immediately after is rather an anti-climax: a very simple ballad for the water carrier himself. But gradually Cherubini winds up the dramatic tension and there are some impressive ensembles later in the work. THere are lots of pre-echoes of Fidelio here including some striking moments of melodrama with spoken dialogue against orchestral background.

All in all this was a strong start to the project. The more I heard of Cherubini the more I am impressed by him. I am getting to know his string quartets along side the operas and there is also plenty of sacred music to go at.