Horatius Coclès

Horatius Coclès is an opera in a single act with music by Méhul and a libretto by Arnault. It had its world premiere at the Opéra on 18 February 1794, and it was filled with the usual revolutionary and patriotic fervor of its day. It died with the passing of the ideals of 1789 and the rise of Napoleon, but it enjoyed 22 performances in 1794 and 1797-98 before being dropped from repertory on 19 April 1798. Its first scene opens in Rome with a chorus mourning the death of Brutus. Horace laments…