André Grétry

André Ernest Modeste Grétry

André Ernest Modeste Grétry (February 8, 1741 – September 24, 1813) was a composer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (present-day Belgium), who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality.

Biography

He was born at Liège, his father being a poor musician. He was a choir-boy at the church of Saint-Denis.

Grétry wearing his medal from the Légion d'honneur

In 1753 he became a pupil of Leclerc and later of the organist at St-Pierre de Liège, Nicolas Rennekin, for keyboard and composition and of Henri Moreau, music master at the collegiate church of St. Paul. But of greater importance was the practical tuition he received by attending the performance of an Italian opera company. Here he heard the operas of Galuppi, Pergolesi, and other masters; and the desire of completing his own studies in Italy was the immediate result. To find the necessary means he composed in 1759 a mass which he dedicated to the canons of the Liège cathedral, and it was at the cost of Canon Hurley that he went to Italy in March 1759. In Rome he went to the Collège de Liège. Here Grétry resided for five years, studiously employed in completing his musical education under Casali. His proficiency in harmony and counterpoint was, however, according to his own confession, at all times very moderate.

His first great success was achieved by La vendemmiatrice, an Italian intermezzo or operetta, composed for the Aliberti theatre in Rome and received with universal applause. It is said that the study of the score of one of Monsigny's operas, lent to him by a secretary of the French embassy in Rome, decided Grétry to devote himself to French comic opera. On New Year's day 1767 he accordingly left Rome, and after a short stay at Geneva (where he made the acquaintance of Voltaire, and produced another operetta) went to Paris.

There for two years he had to contend with the difficulties incident to poverty and obscurity. He was, however, not without friends, and by the intercession of Count Creutz, the Swedish ambassador, Grétry obtained a libretto from Marmontel, which he set to music in less than six weeks, and which, on its performance in August 1768, met with unparalleled success. The name of the opera was Le Huron. Two others, Lucile and Le Tableau parlant, soon followed, and thenceforth Grétry's position as the leading composer of comic opera was safely established.

Altogether he composed some fifty operas. His masterpieces are Zémire et Azor and Richard Cœur de Lion,—the first produced in 1771, the second in 1784. The latter in an indirect way became connected with a great historic event. In it occurs the celebrated romance, O Richard, O mon Roi, l'univers t'abandonne, which was sung at the banquet—"fatal as that of Thyestes," remarks Carlyle—given by the bodyguard to the officers of the Versailles garrison on October 3, 1789. La Marseillaise not long afterwards became the reply of the people to the expression of loyalty borrowed from Grétry's opera. Richard Cœur de Lion was translated and adapted for the English stage by John Burgoyne.

His opera-ballet La caravane du Caire, with modest turquerie exoticism in harp and triangle accompaniment, is a rescue adventure along the lines of Die Entführung aus dem Serail; premiered at Fontainebleau in 1783, it remained in the French repertory for fifty years.

The composer himself was not uninfluenced by the great events he witnessed, and the titles of some of his operas, such as La rosière républicaine and La fête de la raison, sufficiently indicate the epoch to which they belong; but they are mere pièces de circonstance, and the republican enthusiasm displayed is not genuine. Little more successful was Grétry in his dealings with classical subjects. His genuine power lay in the delineation of character and in the expression of tender and typically French sentiment. The structure of his concerted pieces on the other hand is frequently flimsy, and his instrumentation so feeble that the orchestral parts of some of his works had to be rewritten by other composers, in order to make them acceptable to modern audiences. During the Revolution Grétry lost much of his property, but the successive governments of France vied in favouring the composer, regardless of political differences. From the old court he received distinctions and rewards of all kinds; the republic made him an inspector of the conservatoire; Napoleon granted him the cross of the legion of honour and a pension. Grétry died at the Hermitage in Montmorency, formerly the house of Rousseau. Fifteen years after his death Grétry's heart was transferred to his birthplace, permission having been obtained after a tedious lawsuit. In 1842 a colossal bronze statue of the composer was set up at Liège.

Operas

1765–1769

• La vendemmiatrice (carn.1765 Roma Al)
• Isabelle et Gertrude, ou Les sylphes supposés (12.1766 Génève)
• Les mariages samnites (c.1.1768 Paris: P Prince de Conti)
• Le connaisseur (1768; np)
• Le Huron (20.8.1768 Paris CI)
• Lucile (5.1.1769 Paris CI)
• Le tableau parlant (20.9.1769 Paris CI)
• Momus sur la terre (1769? Château de la Roche-Guyon)

1770–1779

• Silvain (19.2.1770 Paris CI)
• Les deux avares (27.10.1770 Fontainebleau)
• L'amitié à l'épreuve (13.11.1770 Fontainebleau)
• Les filles pourvues (31.3.1770 Comédie Italienne, Paris)
• L'ami de la maison (26.10.1771 Fontainebleau)
• Zémire et Azor (9.11.1771 Fontainebleau)
• Le magnifique (4.3.1773 Paris CI)
• La rosière de Salency (23.10.1773 Fontainebleau)
• Céphale et Procris, ou L'amour conjugal (30.12.1773 Versailles)
• La fausse magie (1.2.1775 Paris CI)
• Les mariages samnites [rev] (12.6.1776 Paris CI)
• Pygmalion (1776? inc)
• Amour pour amour (10.3.1777 Versailles)
• Matroco (3.11.1777 Paris: P Prince de Condé)
• Le jugement de Midas (28.3.1778 Paris: P Mme de Montesson)
• Les trois âges de l'opéra (27.4.1778 Paris O) [Le génie de l'opéra; Les trois âges de la musique]
• Les fausses apparences, ou L'amant jaloux (20.11.1778 Versailles)
• Les statues (1778 inc)
• Les événements imprévus (11.11.1779 Versailles)
• Aucassin et Nicolette, ou les moeurs du bon vieux temps (30.12.1779 Versailles)

1780–1789

• Andromaque (6.6.1780 Paris O)
• Emilie, ou La belle esclave (22.2.1781 Paris O)
• Colinette à la cour, ou La double épreuve (1.1.1782 Paris O)
• L'embarras des richesses (26.11.1782 Paris O)
• Electre (1782; np)
• Les colonnes d'Alcide (1782; np)
• Thalie au nouveau théâtre (28.4.1783 Paris CI)
• La caravane du Caire (30.10.1783 Fontainebleau)
• L'epreuve villageoise (written from Théodore et Paulin) (14.06.1784 Comédie-Italienne)
• Richard Coeur-de-lion (21.10.1784 Paris CI)
• Panurge dans l'île des lanternes (25.1.1785 Paris O)
• Oedipe à Colonne (1785 inc)
• Amphitryon (15.3.1786 Versailles)
• Le mariage d'Antonio (29.7.1786 Paris CI) [+ L. Grétry]
• Les méprises par ressemblance (7.11.1786 Fontainebleau)
• Le comte d'Albert (13.11.1786 Fontainebleau)
• Toinette et Louis (23.3.1787 Paris CI) [+ L. Grétry]
• Le prisonnier anglais (26.12.1787 Paris CI)
• Le rival confident (26.6.1788 Paris CI)
• Raoul Barbe-bleue (2.3.1789 Paris CI)
• Aspasie (17.3.1789 Paris O)

1790–1799

• Pierre le Grand (13.1.1790 Paris CI)
• Roger et Olivier (c.1790; np) [rev. Les Mariages samnites]
• Guillaume Tell (9.4.1791 Paris CI)
• Cécile et Ermancé, ou les deux couvents (16.1.1792 Paris CI)
• Basile, ou a trompeur, trompeur et demi (17.10.1792 Paris CI)
• Séraphine, ou absente et présente (c.1792; np)
• Le congrès des rois (26.2.1794 Paris OC) [et al.]
• Joseph Barra (5.6.1794 Paris OC)
• Denys le tyran, maître d'école à Corinthe (23.8.1794 Paris O)
• La fête de la raison (2.9.1794 Paris O) [La rosière républicaine, ou la fête de la vertu]
• Callias, ou nature et patrie (19.9.1794 Paris OC)
• Diogène et Alexandre (1794 inc)
• Lisbeth (10.1.1797 Paris OC)
• Anacréon chez Polycrate (17.1.1797 Paris O)
• Le barbier du village, ou le revenant (6.5.1797 Paris TF)
• Elisca, ou L'amour maternel (1.1.1799 Paris OC)

1800–1803

• Le casque et les colombes (7.11.1801 Paris O)
• Zelmar, ou l'asile (1801; np)
• Le ménage (15.2.1803 Paris O) [Delphis et Mopsa]

Discography:

Denys le tyran, Nuova Era Records, Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia Conductor Francesco Vizioli. Cat: DR 3106 Released 1991

(see also articles on individual operas by Grétry )

References

• See Michael Brenet, Vie de Grétry (Paris, 1884); Joach. le Breton, Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Grétry (Paris, 1814); A Grétry (his nephew), Grétry en famille (Paris, 1814); Felix van Hulst, Grétry (Liege, 1842); L. D. S. Notice biographique sur Grétry (Bruxelles, 1869).
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Jean-Marc Warszawski, "André Grétry"

External links

• Free scores by Grétry at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)