Not the least point of Sarti’s historical importance is the fact that he was the teacher of Cherubini. Luigi Cherubini occupies a peculiar position in the history of music. Born in Florence in 1760 and confining his activities to Italy for the first twenty-eight years of his career, he later extended his influence into Germany (where Beethoven became an enthusiastic admirer) and to Paris, where he became a most important factor of musical life, especially in that most peculiarly French development--the _opéra comique_. His operatic method represents a compromise between those of his teacher, Sarti, and of Gluck, who thus indirectly exerts his influence upon comic opera. Successful as his many Italian operas--produced prior to 1786--were, they hardly deserve notice here. His Paris activities, synchronous with those of Méhul, are so closely bound up with the history of _opéra comique_ that we may well consider them in that connection. The _opéra comique_, the singspiel of France, was comic opera with spoken dialogue. Its earlier exponents, Monsigny, Philidor, and Gossec, were in various ways influenced by Gluck in their work. Grétry,[19] whose _Le tableau parlant_, _Les deux avares_, and _L’Amant jaloux_ are ‘models of lightness and brilliancy,’ like Gluck ‘speaks the language of the heart’ in his masterpieces, _Zémire et Azor_ and _Richard Cœur de Lion_, and excels in delineation of character and the expression of typically French sentiment. Grétry’s appearance marked an epoch in the history of _opéra comique_. His _Mémoires_ expose a dramatic creed closely related to that of Gluck, but going beyond that master in its advocacy of declamation in the place of song. Gossec, also important as symphonist and composer of serious operas (_Philemon et Baucis_, etc.), entered the comic opera field in 1761, the year in which the Opéra Comique, known as the Salle Favart, was opened, though his real success did not come till 1766, with _Les Pêcheurs_. Carried away by revolutionary fervor, he took up the composition of patriotic hymns, became officially connected with the worship of Reason, and eventually left the comic opera field to Cherubini and Méhul. Both arrived in Paris in 1778, which marks the second period of _opéra comique_.