Lucile-Angélique-Dorothée-Louise Grétry (July 15, 1772 – March 1790) was a French composer.
The second daughter of the famous composer
André Grétry and the painter
Jeanne-Marie Grandon, Lucile was trained by her father who introduced her to the court of
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
where she made the acquaintance of
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
. Lucile Grétry wrote two ''
opéras comiques'' for the Comédie-Italienne theatre. The first, ''Le mariage d’Antonio'' (1786), was written when she was just fourteen years old. It was a sequel to her father's most famous work, ''
Richard Coeur-de-lion'' (1786), and ran for 47 performances. Her father assisted her with the orchestral scoring. It was followed by ''Toinette et Louis'' in 1787, which was a failure. Lucile Grétry's marriage was an unhappy one. Her promising career was cut short by her death from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
at the age of seventeen.
Operas
* ''Le mariage d'Antonio'' (''comédie mêlée d'ariettes'', premiere 29 July 1786; libretto by Alexandre-Louis Robineau, under the pseudonym "Madame de Beaunoir")
* ''Toinette et Louis'' (''divertissement mêlée d'ariettes'', premiere and only performance 22 March 1787; libretto by Patrat; both score and libretto now lost)
Sources
*Charlton, David (2001). "Grétry, Lucile" in Stanley Sadie (ed.) ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...
'' 2nd Edition, Vol. 10. Grove.
*Letzer, Jacqueline and Adelson, Robert (2001
''Women Writing Opera: Creativity and Controversy in the Age of the French Revolution'' pp. 26–28. Columbia University Press.
*
University of North Texas
The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...
Libraries
Background to ''Le mariage d'Antonio''
External links
* on the official YouTube channel of Orquesta de Cámara Aragonia
*
Preface to the Edition of ''Le mariage d'Antonio''by Robert Adelson (A-R Editions, 2008)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gretry, Lucile-Angelique-Dorothee-Louise
1772 births
1790 deaths
French women classical composers
French Classical-period composers
18th-century French classical composers
18th-century women composers