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André Ernest Modeste Grétry (French: [gʁɛtʁi]; baptised 11 February 1741; died 24 September 1813) was a composer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (present-day Belgium), who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous for his opéras comiques.

Success - Charlton figures

Early life

Childhood and school

Grétry was the second of six children. Father François-Pascal Grétry. First violin at the church of Saint Martin in Liege. Mother Jeanne Defossez (or Marie-Jeanne des Fossés)

TB

He was a choirboy at the church of St. Denis (Liège). In 1753 he became a pupil of Jean-Pantaléon 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 Baldassarre Galuppi, Giovanni Battista 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 Giovanni Battista Casali. His proficiency in harmony and counterpoint was, however, according to his own confession, at all times very moderate.

Rome

Fondation Darchis
Casali
Padre Martin
hermit
La vendemmiatrice

Geneva

On New Year's Day 1766 Grétry set off from Italy. Rather than returning home directly, he decided to spend some time in Geneva where he earned a living giving music lessons. Here, in the city theatre, Grétry had his first chance to see performances of the latest French opéras comiques by Monsigny and Philidor. He was initially perplexed by their use of spoken dialogue between musical numbers rather than the recitative of Italian comic opera but what he saw and heard convinced him that it was possible to write opera in the French language. [Partisans of Italian music such as Rousseau had claimed French was unsingable].

Eager to write an opéra comique of his own but lacking a libretto, Grétry approached Voltaire, the most famous French man of letters at the time, who was living at Ferney, a few miles from Geneva. Voltaire received him warmly and advised him not to return to Liege but to seek his fortune in Paris. Voltaire was unable to provide a libretto so Grétry chose to use one by Charles-Simon Favart, Isabelle et Gertrude, already set by Adolphe Blaise. Grétry considered Blaise's music mediocre and had no compunction in producing a version of his own. Grétry's Isabelle et Gertrude ran for six performances in Geneva in December 1766 and received such encouraging critical notices Grétry decided to try his luck at establishing a career in Paris.

Operatic career

Early successes

State of French music at the time?
hundred-headed hydra
Marmontel
Les mariages samnites (original version)
Le Huron
Follow up successes: Lucile, Le tableau parlant, Sylvain?

Music

Non-operatic music

dates from time in Italy