The story of Demophoon is the subject of many eighteenth-century operas. Pietro Metastasio turned the story into a popular libretto that was set over thirty times in the eighteenth century alone. Cherubini's setting is to a libretto by Jean Francois Marmontel, who adapted Metastasio's text into a French libretto written in verse. It was commissioned by the Academie Royale de Musique before Cherubini had arrived in Paris; he finished most of it while in London. The composer moved to France in 1788 and was hired to direct a theater in Paris. Demophoon was his first effort at French grand opera, and although he struggled with the French poetry and verse given to him by Marmontel, the opera has many strong points. It was Cherubini's first departure from an Italian style of opera writing inspired by the likes of Niccolò Jommelli and other opera seria composers who sought to imbue their works with greater dramatic unity and coherence. The forms and styles of opera seria were not new to him; he had been composing Italian opera seria since the beginning of his musical career. But there are new forms in Demophoon, and new directions taken. Cherubini's new style of writing includes a dramatic use of the orchestra and imaginative instrumentation that is important to the moods, settings, and the action of the story. One of the highlights of the opera comes at the end of the second act as Osmide succumbs to bleak despair at the loss of his wife and child. The music reflects the desperate emotions of Osmide, and turns his internal anguish into the climax of the act.

The premiere took place on December 5, 1788. The opera was rather coolly received by the French public, however. The French critics didn't think much of it either, and faulted both the libretto and the "coldness" of Cherubini's new style of writing. The subject was given to both Cherubini and Vogel to set, and although Vogel's was the favored opera, neither ever achieved much popularity or acclaim.

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