GRETRY, ANDRE ERNEST MODESTE Belgian operatic composer, was born at Liege on Feb. 8, 1741, his father being a poor musician. He was a choir boy at the church of St. Denis. In 1753 he became a pupil of Leclerc and later of Renekin and Moreau. 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 determined to complete his own studies in Italy. He spent five years at the College de Liege at Rome, where he worked under Casali. He made his first success in La Vendencmiatrice, an Italian intermezzo or operetta, com posed for the Aliberti theatre in Rome. Study of the score of one of Monsigny's operas, decided Gretry to devote himself to French comic opera and he returned to Paris with this intention, though at first he had a hard struggle. Then he had the good luck to obtain a libretto (Le Huron), from Marmontel, which he set to music in less than six weeks ; the performance of the work in August 1768 met with unparalleled success. Two other operas, Lucile and Le Tableau parlant, soon followed, and thenceforth Gretry's posi tion as the leading composer of comic opera was safely estab lished. Altogether he composed some fifty operas. His master pieces are Zemire et Azor (1770, L'Amant jaloux (1778), L 'Epreuve villageoise (1784), and Richard Coeur de Lion (1784) • In the last-named occurs the famous song, 0 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. Gretry was not uninfluenced by the great events he witnessed, but La Rosiere republicaine and La Fete de la raison have none of the sincerity of Richard Coeur de Lion. He died on Sept. 24, 1813.
See Michael Brenet, Vie de Gretry (Paris, 1884) ; Joach. le Breton, Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Gretry (Paris, 1814) ; A. Gretry (his nephew), Gretry en famille (Paris, 1814) ; Felix van Hulst, Gretry (Liege, 1842) ; L. D. S., Notice biographique sur Gretry (Bruxelles, 1869) . A full bibliography of Gretry's works is given in the art. by L. de la Laurencie in the Encyclopedie de la Musique et Dictionnaire du Conservatoire: France and Siecles. The works themselves, both musical and literary, have been published com plete in a carefully prepared edition issued at the instance of the Belgian Government.