Beethoven and Luigi Cherubini
Beethoven met the composer Luigi Cherubini on the latter's voyage to Vienna in 1805. Cherubini, a longtime resident of Paris, was invited to mount a production of his opera Die Tage der Gefahr (or Der Wasserträger) after the success of his 1791 opera Lodoïska, which was staged by Emanuel Schikaneder on 23 March 1803 at the Theater an der Wien. Cherubini's time in Vienna was generally unhappy, but he did have the opportunity to meet Beethoven. Cherubini was in attendance for the first performances of Beethoven's opera Fidelio, to which he reacted sneeringly. He also described Beethoven's piano style as "rough", and more famously the man himself as "an unlicked bear cub". It is remarkable, therefore, that Beethoven, normally so quick to take offense, named Cherubini as the greatest contemporary composer.
Read more about this topic: Beethoven And His Contemporaries
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