• Period: Classical (1750-1819)
• Country: France
• Genres: Opera

Biography

André Ernest Modeste Grétry was born in Liège (now in Belgium) on February 8, 1741. He learned music from his father, a violinist, and became a choirboy. After the young Grétry was brutally beaten for tardiness, he developed the habit of arriving so early for each of the three daily services that he spent long periods shivering on the church steps during winters. This may have accounted for his susceptibility to respiratory infections that eventually led to tuberculosis. In 1761 Grétry traveled to Rome, where he spent some years as a student of Casali; despite the city's burgeoning operatic scene, he produced mostly sacred music during these years (1761-1765). As a music teacher in Geneva in 1766, Grétry met Voltaire; at the writer's suggestion, he went to Paris, where he soon established himself as an operatic composer of some consequence. He met a Mlle. Grandon and apparently took a liking to her, judging from the appearance of the first of their three children prior to their marriage in 1771.

Grétry's central position in French opera (especially opéra comique) was undisputed during his lifetime, though the ascendancy of younger rivals such as Cherubini and Méhul eventually stole some of his thunder. Despite bouts of ill health, he maintained a more or less regular composition schedule of two new operas a year. He was decorated and received a pension from the King which, of course, was cancelled by the Revolution; finding favor with the new regime, however, he received a doubled pension by order of Napoleon, who also accorded him the Legion of Honor. Grétry eventually purchased Rousseau's "Ermitage" near Montmorency and eased into retirement there as his musical style became outdated. He died at the estate in 1813.

Though never repertoire mainstays after the composer's lifetime, Gretry's operas enjoyed renewed interest as opera companies and audiences began to rediscover such unjustly overlooked composers of the Classical era. Richard Coeur-de-lion (1784) remains a seminal masterpiece of the opéra comique style; Zemire et Azor (1771), based on the story of Beauty and the Beast, received well-regarded productions in the 1980s and 1990s. Grétry's operas, despite a sometimes offhanded approach to the more academic rules of composition, are notable for a distinctive declamatory style, inventive use of ensembles, and graceful charm. ~ AMG, All Music Guide

(b Liège, 8 Feb 1741; d Paris, 24 Sept 1813). French composer. Of Walloon descent, he was a distinguished boy soprano.In 1761-5 he studied in Rome, composing sacred music and two intermezzos (1765). He settled in Paris in 1767 and began writing in the new opéra comique genre; his second work, Le Huron (1768), was an instant success. As his output continued he rose in esteem, and many works were given abroad (especially in Liège). Some (e.g. Zémire et Azor, 1771) used oriental subjects. His serious opera Andromaque (1780) was a failure, but with Colinette à la cour (1782) and Panurge dans l′île des lanternes (1785) he successfully introduced comic subject matter to the Opéra, helping to remove the barriers between tragedy and comedy. In the rivalry between supporters of Gluck and Piccinni, Grétry favoured the Gluckists, whose applause made his La caravane du Caire (1783) a particular triumph. After Richard Coeur-de-lion (1784) his inspiration declined. Several works were banned after the Revolution, and his later operas were obliged to support the new regime. Latterly he concentrated on literature, notably his Mémoires (1789), which comment on his works and his ideas about composition, and his Reflexions d′un solitaire (1801 - 13).

Grétry dominated opéra comique in his day and contributed significantly to the development of French opera as a whole. He skilfully combined Italian features and clear French declamation; with his simple, delicately expressive style and natural characterization he implemented Rousseau's ideas for opera. His operas include both Italian and French aria and song forms. Clear characterization is a particular feature of his ensembles, and the instrumental pieces (overtures and dances) are colourfully but economically scored. Among his other compositions are romances, Revolutionary songs and early instrumental and sacred works.

works:
Dramatic music

• Zémire et Azor (1771)
• L′amant jaloux (1778)
• La caravane du Caire (1783)
• Richard Coeur-de-lion (1784)
• Panurge dans l′île des lanternes (1785)
• c 35 other operas
• prologues, divertissements

Vocal music

• c 20 romances
• 4 Revolutionary songs
• sacred works

Instrumetnal music

• 6 str qts, op.3 (1773)

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Grétry, André‐Ernest‐Modeste (1741–1813), Belgian, later French, composer, whose comic operas enjoyed unequalled success in Paris and abroad. Among his ‘marvellous’ operas, Grétry set two fairy tales. His first, on Jean‐François Marmontel's ‘Beauty and the Beast’, Zémire et Azor (1771), was the most successful fairy‐tale opera of the century, and it was parodied, translated, and reworked numerous times. The characters derive from earlier fairy plays: Pierre‐Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée's Amour pour amour (1742), and Jean‐François Guichard's L'Amant statue (1759). Sandor, a Persian merchant, and his servant Ali are stranded on the island of Azor, a Persian prince and the king of Kamir, who has been transformed into a beast by a vengeful fairy. Azor spares their lives in exchange for Sandor's daughter Zémire, whose love redeems Azor at the end.

In 1776 Grétry began to set the encyclopedist Marmontel's opéra féerie, Les Statues, based on The Arabian Nights, to music, but the project was abandoned after two acts were composed. His last fairy‐tale opera, Michel‐Jean Sedaine's Raoul Barbe‐bleue (1789), based on Charles Perrault's ‘Bluebeard’, was highly successful, although critics were disturbed by its violence, and perhaps by its implied social critique. The ‘abominable tyrant’ Raoul is of the ancient nobility, and the peasants celebrate his death at the end, caused by members of the newer nobility.

Grétry's operas utilize Italianate melody, symphonic instrumental writing, and dramatic musical setting of text. His Mémoires (2nd edn., 1797) and other writings are important primary sources.

Bibliography

• A.‐E.‐M. Grétry, Collection complète des œuvres (1884–1936).
• Charlton, David, Grétry and the Growth of Opéra‐Comique (1986).

— David J. Buch

(äNdrā' ĕrnĕst' môdĕst' grātrē') , 1741–1813, French operatic composer. Enormously prolific and successful in his lifetime, he was a master of the 18th-century opéra comique. His works combined the melodic grace of Italian opera with the imagination, delicacy, and dramatic interest of the French. His masterpiece is Richard Cœur de Lion (1784).