Luigi Cherubini

Son to a theatermusician - his father played harpsichord for the Teatro della Pergola in Florence - he received his first music education of his father. The talented Cherubini continued his studies under Bartelomeo Felici, who also conducted his first major work, a missa. Later, he was taught by Giuseppe Sarti in Venice, who introduced him to polyphony.  From 1778, Cherubini started to focus on opera. His first work, Il Quinto Fabio (1780) became the basis for his succesful career as an opera composer. In 1784, Cherubini moved to London, where he held the position of royal court composer. Afterwars, he decided to try his luck in Paris and became conductor at the small theatre of Queen Marie Antoinette, experiencing the great policital and social changes that the French Revolition brought up close. This had a major impact on his music. Because of the French Revolution, his connection to Italian opera was broken, and a new French opera style, of which Cherubini was part, arose. 

His operas Médée (1797) en Les Deux Journées (1800) became great successes and together with Gaspare Spontini he became the face of the French opera. Ludwig van Beethoven was a great admirer of his compositions. Franz Schubert stated that Médée was his favourite opera of all times, and Johannes Brahms claimed that Cherubini's work was the absolute pinnacle of classical music.