Rescue opera rescue opera; Luigi Cherubini's "Lodoïska" (1791) has also been named a founding work of the genre. Other examples from the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, the period when rescue opera flourished, are Nicolas Dalayrac's "Camille ou Le souterrain" (1791), Jean-François Le Sueur's "La caverne" (1793), and Cherubini's "Les deux journées" (1800). While the rescue opera was primarily a French genre, the two best-known operas in the genre are not French. Ludwig van Beethoven's "Fidelio" is by far the most famous example today, and was also influenced by the German "Singspiel". A work which is similar
Washington National Opera order of the day". Four months later, the Society staged a double bill of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "The Old Maid and the Thief" along with his ballet "The Unicorn, The Gorgon, and the Manticore". It was very successful with both the public and critics alike. Successful presentations followed from November 1957 onwards: "Fidelio"; "Ariadne auf Naxos"; "Idomeneo"; a double bill of Schoenberg's "Erwartung" and Stravinsky's "Le Rossignol" (conducted by the composer); and a December 1961 "The Magic Flute" which resulted in an invitation from President John Kennedy at the White House for some excerpts from the opera. By this