Les deux journées

{{Infobox opera

| name = Les deux journées

| type = Opéra comique

| composer = Luigi Cherubini

| image = Cherubini - Les deux journées - costume de Juliet (Mikéli), 1807.png

| image_upright =

| caption = Costume design for the water carrier

| librettist = Jean-Nicolas Bouilly

| language = French

| based_on =

| premiere_date = {{Start date|1800|01|16|df=y}}

| premiere_location = Théâtre Feydeau, Paris

}}

Les deux journées, ou Le porteur d'eau (The Two Days, or The Water Carrier) is an opera in three acts by Luigi Cherubini with a libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly. It takes the form of an opéra comique, meaning not that the subject matter is humorous, but that the piece is a mixture of spoken dialogue and musical numbers. Bouilly claimed he took the story from a real-life incident during the French Revolution but, for fear of censorship, he moved the action back to 1647 and the time of Cardinal Mazarin. The opera was first performed on 16 January 1800 at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris.

Les deux journées is sometimes considered Cherubini's most successful opera, though revivals have been rare in the past hundred years.{{Cite book |title=Classical Music: The Listener's Companion |editor-first=Alexander J. |editor-last=Morin |page=219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ayT5T59ckzIC&pg=PA219 |year=2002 |publisher=Hal Leonard|isbn=9780879306380 }} Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Ludwig van Beethoven both felt that Bouilly's libretto was one of the best of its day; Beethoven kept Cherubini's score on his desk and copied out passages from it while composing Fidelio.{{Cite book|title=Carl Maria von Weber|first=John Hamilton|last=Warrack|authorlink=John Warrack|page=158|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bp08AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA158|year=1976|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521213547 }}{{Cite book |title=Beethoven |first=William |last=Kinderman|authorlink=William Kinderman|page=116|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjx5TavKai0C&pg=PA116|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|isbn=9780195328257 }}{{Cite book|first=Herbert|last=Weinstock|authorlink=Herbert Weinstock|page=208|title=The Opera: A History of its Creation and Performance: 1600–1941|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1961|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=17EsAAAAMAAJ}}