The peaceful artistic rivalry and development of this period stand in peculiar contrast to the great political holocaust which coincides with it--the French Revolution. That upheaval was accompanied by an almost frantic search for pleasure on the part of the public, and an astounding increase in the number of theatres (seventeen were opened in 1791, the year of Louis XVI’s flight, and eighteen more up to 1800). Cherubini’s wife herself relates how the theatres were crowded at night after the guillotine had done its bloody work by day. Music flourished as never before and especially French music, for the storm of patriotism which swept the country made for the patronage of things French. In the very year of Robespierre’s execution (1794) the _Conservatoire de Musique_ was projected, an institution which has ever since remained the bulwark of French musical culture.[20] In 1789 a certain Léonard, _friseur_ to Marie Antoinette, was given leave to collect a company for the performance of Italian opera, and opened his theatre in a hall of the Tuileries palace with his countryman Cherubini as his musical director. The fall of the Bastille in 1794 drove them from the royal residence to a mere booth in the Foire St. Germain, where in 1792 they created the famous Théâtre Feydeau, and delighted Revolutionary audiences with Cherubini versions of Cimarosa and Paesiello operas. Here, too, _Lodoïska_, one of Cherubini’s most brilliant works, was enthusiastically applauded. Meantime Étienne Méhul (b. Givet, Ardennes, 1763; d. Paris, 1817), the modest, retiring artist, who had been patiently awaiting the recognition of the _Académie_ (his _Alonzo et Cora_ was not produced till 1791) had become the hero of the older enterprise at the Salle Favart,[21] and there produced his _Euphrosine et Corradin_ in 1790, followed by a series of works of which the last, _Le jeune Henri_ (1797), was hissed off the stage because, in the fifth year of the revolution, it introduced a king as character--the once adored Henry IV! This was followed by a more successful series, ‘whose musical force and the enchanting melodies with which they are begemmed have kept them alive.’ His more serious works, notably _Stratonice_, _Athol_, and especially _Joseph_, a biblical opera, are highly esteemed. M. Tiersot considers the last-named work superior to that by Handel of the same name. Méhul was Gluck’s greatest disciple--he was directly encouraged and aided by Gluck--and even surpassed his master in musical science.