His opera "Démophon" was performed at the Grand Opéra in 1788. It helped to make him famous. He soon became director of the Théâtre de Monsieur in the Tuileries, and three years later he went to the Théâtre Feydeau. He started to try out many new ideas in his music. His opera "Lodoïska" (1791) was very popular for the way he showed heroism. His best-known work is "Médée" (1797). "Les deux journées" (1800) was also highly successful for a while.
The French Revolution affected Cherubini’s life. He tried not to show that he had been friendly with aristocrats before the revolution. Hoping to get government jobs, he wrote several patriotic works in order to please the revolutionary leaders. Later he was made Napoléon's director of music in Vienna (1805-1806), and he conducted some of his music there.
After he had written his opera "Les deux journées", audiences in Paris started to tire of Cherubini’s music. They wanted to hear younger composers such as Adrien Boieldieu. Cherubini found it difficult to get his stage works performed. Instead, he wrote church music. When France became a monarchy again he was appointed "surintendant de la musique du roi" (director of the king’s music). He kept this title until 1830 when there was another revolution.
In 1815 he briefly went again to London. There he was asked to compose a symphony, an overture and a work for chorus and orchestra. This helped to make him more famous outside France.
Cherubini's "Requiem in C-minor" (1816), which marked the anniversary of the execution of King Louis XVI of France, was a great success. Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms all liked it very much. In 1836, Cherubini wrote a "Requiem in D Minor", which he meant to be performed at his own funeral. It uses a male choir only, because the religious authorities had criticised the fact that he had written for ladies’ voices in his C-minor Requiem.
Cherubini produced some chamber music, including several string quartets and a quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos. He also wrote some piano sonatas.
In 1822, Cherubini became director of the Conservatoire. In 1835 he wrote a book called "Cours de contrepoint et de fugue".
There are several stories told by people who lived at that time, showing that Cherubini often became angry. Hector Berlioz tells an amusing story in his autobiography about how Cherubini, in a bad temper, chased him round and round the library.
But he also had many friends, including Rossini, Chopin and, especially, the painter Ingres. The two men had the same interests: Cherubini was a keen amateur painter and Ingres enjoyed practising the violin. In 1841, Ingres painted a well-known portrait of Cherubini.
During his life, Cherubini received the highest official honours, including "Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur" (1814) and "Membre de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts" (1815). In 1841, he was made "Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur," the first time a musician had been given that title.
Cherubini died in Paris at age of 81 and is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery, just four metres from his friend Chopin.
During the first ten years of his life in Paris Cherubini concentrated on writing dramatic stage works. After 1800 things became more difficult for him in this field. Napoleon was ruling in France, and the two men did not like one another much. The audiences expected an Italian composer to write beautiful melodies rather than anything dramatic. The Feydeau Theatre, where he had enjoyed several triumphs, did not exist any more. Cherubini concentrated on his teaching at the Paris Conservatoire. Even after Napoleon had lost his power Cherubini left it to younger people, such as Rossini and Giacomo Meyerbeer, to compose operas. He preferred to write religious pieces.
By the end of the 19th century Cherubini’s music was almost forgotten, and he was only really remembered for his theoretical writing. During the late 20th century people became interested in his music again, and his religious compositions are sometimes performed. However, his operas do not belong to any popular tradition and are hardly ever staged now, although they contain much excellent music.
Mario Andretti
Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is a retired racecar driver. He won the 1969 Indianapolis 500, the 1978 Formula One championship and won the 1967 Daytona 500. He is called the most successful American racecar driver.
Maria Edgeworth
Maria Edgeworth was a novelist in the early nineteenth century.
Edgeworth was born in Oxfordshire in 1767 or 1768. She was the daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Anna Maria Edgeworth. When her father married again to his second wife, she went with him to Ireland. There, she helped her father and managed her father's land. Because of this, she became friends with lots of fashionable people and with Irish peasants. This was very useful to her later in writing her novels. At first she used to write for children, but in 1800 she published her first adults' novel, "Castle Rackrent". Lots of people liked "Castle Rackrent," which was an immediate success.
In 1798 her father married his fourth wife. For fifty-one years Maria had a very good friend in her stepmother.
In 1802 their family traveled to other countries. First they went to Brussels, then to a part of France. There Maria met a man named Count Edelcrantz. Maria's stepmother wrote in the book "Life and Letters," that Maria loved him very much. They came back home to Ireland in 1803 when the war began again, and Maria started writing again. Her father helped her with her writing, and corrected her books a lot. Maria published "Castle Rackrent" secretly.
Edgeworth helped Irish peasantry very much. She was short, and is said to be cheerful and lively. After she was ill for a few years she died at Edgeworthstone, in the arms of her stepmother, in 1849.
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He signed a one-year, $700,000 contract with the Winnipeg Jets but he died before training camp. His body was found in his home on August 15, 2011 by police. His death was later confirmed to be a suicide Rypien had struggled with clinical depression throughout his career.
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Glenda Jackson