An unforeseen change of theatre resulted in Cherubini's opera Médée being published not as a through-composed tragédie lyrique, as originally intended when the librettist François-Benoît Hoffman was commissioned to write the libretto, but as an opéra comique with spoken dialogues. This version of the world premiere of 13 March 1797 which was distorted and replaced in the 19th century by Franz Lachner's arrangement could be reconstructed in 2006.

In the critical edition by Heiko Cullmann (pian...