Gretry

Gretry, Andre Ernest (1741-1813). a French operatic composer, was a native of Liege. He spent five years at the Liege College at Rome, where he first won success with an Italian intermezzo. After leaving Rome he went for a time to Geneva, where he met Voltaire, but ultimately decided to live in France. Here he wrote the music for Marmontel's Le Huron, produced in 1768. He afterwards composed some fifty operas, the best of which were Zemire et Azor, and Richard Cceur de Lion, the latter containing the air, 0 Richard, 0 mon Roi, Vunivers t'abandonne, so famous in the history of the Revolution. He received honours from each of the successive governments which followed, and died at the Hermitage, Montmorency, where Rousseau had once lived.

Gretry was deficient in knowledge of harmony and instrumentation, but his music abounds in the peculiarly French grace of expression.