Andre-Ernest-Modeste Gretry: L'epreuve villageoise
Sheet Music

SKU: NX.8660377

By Francisco Fernandez-Rueda, Opera Lafayette Orchestra and Chorus, Ryan Brown, Sophie Junker, Talise Trevigne, and Thomas Dolie. By Andre-Ernest-Modeste Gretry. Classical. CD (1 disc). Published by Naxos (NX.8660377).

730099037778.

L'epreuve villageoise - which, in its original form, was first performed before Marie Antoinette at Versailles - was one of Andre-Ernest-Modeste Gretry's most popular works. For a century after its 1784 premiere it enjoyed huge acclaim across Europe and even travelled to the New World, where it captivated audiences in New York. Gretry was a master of eighteenth-century opera comique and his crisp and lively farce centres on a clever farmer's daughter and her two competing suitors. Employing divergent stylistic registers - finesse and naivete, music reminiscent of popular song, and extended ensembles - Gretry fashioned a score of sophisticated wit and huge charm.