André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry

Opera composer André-Ernest Modeste Grétry (1741-1813) was born in Liège, but is considered a French composer. After studying in Rome, Grétry seemed headed toward a career in sacred music, but a chance meeting with Voltaire turned his interests to opera. Arriving in Paris in 1767, Grétry composed some 50 operas and became a dominant figure in the French theater; among his most successful creations were Zémire et Azor (1771) and Richard Coeur-de-lion (1784). The outbreak of the French Revolution compromised his popularity, but the revolutionary government embraced his work and he retired, old and well-decorated, to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's former estate, Montmorency.