I don't think much about Grétry, yet now I've seen three of his operas. Go figure. This--so sez wikipedia--is considered his masterpiece, so sure, fine. Probably not the all-time best timing for a French opera about the greatness of a king, but here it is. Grétry wasn't killed in the Revolution or anything, so it seems to have worked out. These days, of course, it's not much produced, but here is a performance.
It's based on some old legend about Richard being held captive in Austria on his way back from The Crusades and his rescue by a troubadour named Blondel. He's in disguise, and he's pretending to be blind, which I suppose must've been how it was in the original, but it's not clear here how his fake blindness has anything to do with anything. I dunno. Blondel teams up with an Englishman named Sir Williams (Blondel realizes he's English when he uses the word "goddamn"--I found that pretty funny) and his, Williams', daughter Laurette. What can I say? They rescue the dang ol' king. And there's an extremely half-baked romance between Laurette and the head jailer, Florestan. He's captured, but then everyone's so happy that he's freed and gets to be with Laurette. Okay.
The music here is much of a muchness with Grétry's Guillaume Tell, which is no bad thing. I thought the overture to the third act was particularly rad. Of course, this opera is most famous nowadays for the aria "Je crains de lui parler la nuit," which was borrowed or stolen (take your pick) by Tchaikovsky for his Queen of Spades. It's a great piece no matter where you hear it, but I have to say, I think the context that Tchaikovsky gives it hits much harder than Grétry's: here, it's just about how much Laurette love Florestan, YAWNSVILLE, whereas in Queen of Spades it's about the Countess reminiscing over her past--devastating in a way that this can't approach. But hey, Grétry still wrote the dang thing, so let's give credit where it's due!
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