About the work
Comédie lyrique (opéra comique) in three acts by Luigi Cherubini, with a libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, premiered on 16 January 1800 at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris. On German-language stages the work has been known since its first translations of 1801 under the title "Der Wasserträger" (The Water Carrier).
Plot
The water carrier Mikéli helps council president Armand and his wife Constance flee Paris as they are pursued by Cardinal Mazarin: he smuggles Constance out of the city with forged papers and hides Armand first in a water barrel, then in a hollow tree. In the end Queen Anne of Austria grants the couple a pardon.
Cultural significance
With 56 performances in its premiere year alone, the work became Cherubini's most successful opera and is regarded as an early example of the "rescue opera". Beethoven, who kept the score on his desk, is documented to have drawn on it while composing "Fidelio"; Goethe likewise admired the subject and staged the work in Weimar in 1803.