Luigi (Salvadore Maria Zanobi) Cherubini

Italian composer. Born in Florence. He lived in Paris from 1788 and gained fame as a French opera composer. He was taught music by his father, a harpsichordist, and studied under Sarti in Bologna in 1778, moving to Milan the following year to hone his compositional techniques. In 1780, at the age of 20, he performed the opera Quinto Fabio in Alessandria in the Piedmont region, marking his start as an opera composer. He subsequently released operas in Florence and other cities in Tuscany, and enjoyed some success, but due to financial difficulties he went to London in 1784 and became a musician at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket.

In 1788, he moved to Paris, where his first French work, "Demophone," was performed at the Opera in the same year. Although it was not well received, "Lodoiska" (1791) was a great success, and he quickly gained fame. As a result, he was appointed an inspector, and when the Paris Conservatoire was established in 1795, he became a professor of composition along with Grétry, Mehul, and Gossec. In 1897, he produced "Medea," one of his operas that is still performed today, and in 1800, "Two Days," a representative work of the "rescue operas" that were popular around the time of the French Revolution, was a great success, with a turbulent plot and Cherubini's music with dramatic effects. Napoleon did not like him, and his creative activities thereafter were sluggish. He continued to live in Paris, away from composing, except for a performance of "Two Days" in Vienna in 1805 and his acquaintances with Haydn and Beethoven. After the fall of Napoleon, he was invited to become musical director of the royal chapel, and composed a great deal of religious and chamber music. He also served as director of the Paris Conservatoire from 1922 to 1942, where he educated many of the most representative musicians of 19th century French music.

[Yoshio Miyama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イタリアの作曲家。フィレンツェ生まれ。1788年からはパリに住んで、フランス語によるオペラ作曲家として名声を博した。チェンバロ奏者の父から音楽の手ほどきを受け、1778年にはボローニャでサルティに師事、翌年にはミラノに移り作曲技法を磨いた。80年、20歳でオペラ『クィント・ファービオ』をピエモンテ地方のアレッサンドリアで上演、オペラ作曲家の道を歩き始めた。その後フィレンツェなどトスカナ地方の諸都市を中心にオペラを発表、いちおうの成功を収めはしたが、経済的困窮から84年ロンドンに行き、ヘイマーケットのキングズ劇場の音楽家となった。

　1788年にはパリに移り、同年最初のフランス語作品『デモフォーン』をオペラ座で上演、これはあまり評判にならなかったものの、『ロドイスカ』（1791）が大成功、一躍彼の名声を高めた。その結果、視学官に任命され、95年にパリ音楽院が発足すると、グレトリー、メユール、ゴセックらとともに作曲の教授に就任した。97年には彼のオペラのなかで今日も上演される『メディア』を、ついで1800年には『二日間』を発表、後者はフランス革命前後に流行した「救出オペラ」の代表的作品で、波瀾(はらん)に満ちた筋とケルビーニの劇的効果をもった音楽が調和、大成功となった。ナポレオンに好まれなかった彼は、以後創作面では低調で、05年ウィーンで『二日間』などを上演、ハイドンやベートーベンと知り合ったほかは、作曲から遠のいた生活をパリで続けた。そして、ナポレオン失脚後、宮廷礼拝堂音楽監督に招かれたのを機に宗教音楽や室内楽曲を多く作曲、また22年から42年まではパリ音楽院院長の地位にあり、19世紀フランス音楽を代表する音楽家たちを多数教育した。

［美山良夫］

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