André Grétry

Composer Dateline:  February 8

André Grétry, French opera composer, famous for opéras comiques.

André Ernest Modeste Grétry (8 February 1741 – 24 September 1813) was a composer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (present-day Belgium), born of a poor musician father.  He was a choir-boy at the church of Saint-Denis.

Gretry became a pupil of Leclerc in 1753 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.

Of greater importance was the practical tuition he received by attending the performance of an Italian opera company. Here he heard the operas of Pergolesi and other masters.

He had much motivation that the desire of completing his own studies in Italy was the immediate result. To find the necessary means he composed a mass which he dedicated to the canons of the Liege Cathedral. He had composed some symphonies and church music, which won him scholarship to study in Rome. He was able to leave for Italy in March 1759.   Grétry went to College de Liege in Rome, where he resided for five years, studiously employed in completing his musical education under Casali. He produced sacred music and two Italian intermezzos in 1765. His first great success was achieved by La Vendemmiatrice, one of the intermezzos (or operetta) composed for the Aliberti Theatre in Rome. It received worldwide recognition.

 

He settled in Paris from 1767 onwards and became a French citizen. He composed a stream of the new opera comique genre, the most popular being Richard Coeur-de-Lionhearted. He published his memoirs in three volumes. 

 

In the rivalry between supporters of Gluck and Piccinni, Gretry favoured the Gluckists, whose applause made his La caravane du Caire a triumph. Several of his works were banned after the Revolution, and his later operas were obliged to support the new regime. He then concentrated on literature, notably his Memoires (1789), which comments on his worksand his ideas about composition, and his Reflexions d'un solitaire.

Grétry composed about fifty operas. He was a leading figure in the development of operas-comiques.


Resources:

• Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, Macmillan, 1954.
• The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Revised ed, OUP, 1994. 

 

 

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