Composer of the Month 9/2013: André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry (selected by Peter van Dessel / Belgium)

Belgium 15.4.1944 The video shows the baroque ensemble "Les Agrémens" and the Namur Chamber Choir under the direction of Guy van Waas in a concert performance of the music for the ballet heroic "Cephale et Procris" by André Grétry (Act 1, Scene 5 "Ballet of the Nymphs of Diana"). The performance took place on 21.11.2009 in the Royal Opera in Versailles, the place where the work was first performed on 30.12.1773. The Belgian-French composer André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry was born on 8 February 1741 in Liege. He received music lessons from his father and later by choir and church music directors of his hometown. In 1760 he received a scholarship for studies in Rome. In 1766 he settled in Geneva, but already in 1767 he went, on the advice of Rousseau and Voltaire, to Paris, where he immediately achieved great success with his comic operas. In 1795 he was appointed inspector of the Conservatoire. Later he received a pension of Napoleon I. and retreated back into the country. Grétry's compositions, which he has mostly written for the Opéra Comique, distinguished by its wealth of melody and have exercised great influence on the formation of musical taste. André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry died on 24 September 1813 in Montmorency, near Paris. In September 2013, the music world commemorates his 200th Death anniversary. More composer can be found in the members only section