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Gretry's "Richard Coeur De Lion" (1784), a rousing tale about the rescue of the crusader king Richard the Lionheart by his faithful troubadour Blondel, is a minor masterpiece, the greatest French opera comique of the Ancien Regime. Gretry wasn't an eighteenth century composer of the calibre of Mozart, Rameau or his contemporary Gluck, but his music seduced audiences with its charm and tunefulness and in this opera he provided a great deal more. Blondel's stirring aria of loyalty to his king, "O Richard, oh mon roi", was so powerful it was used as an anthem by the royalists in the 1790s and promptly banned by the revolutionary authorities. The romance "Une fievre brulante" (which recurs throughout the opera in a very early anticipation of the Wagnerian leitmotif) is a superb melody too, sentimental in the best sense of the word. The only aria most people today are likely to be familiar with is "Je crains de lui parler la nuit", the song the old countess sings to herself just before she is murdered in Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades", but there are also lively peasant dances and choruses, catchy duets and trios and a barnstorming finale in which King Richard's loyal followers overrun the castle where he is being held and free him from its dungeon.

This re-release of a Belgian recording from the 1970s finally gives us a chance to hear this delightful opera in a decent recording. You could make a few criticisms of the performance: Doneux is better conducting the forthright music, as he can be rhythmically unyielding in the more lyrical moments; as Blondel, Michel Trempont is occasionally gruff (but it could be argued this is not inappropriate to the role); the chorus could do with a bit more presence. But this is a vast improvement on the only previously available version, a rather rough and ready (if enthusiastic) live recording on Nuova Era. 

EMI have managed to squeeze the entire opera onto a single CD. They also give us a second disc containing another historically important French opera of the time, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Le Devin du Village" ("The Village Soothsayer"). Rousseau is deservedly more famous as a philosopher than as a musician and this isn't quite the musical treat Gretry's piece was, but it is an entertaining enough trifle. Louis de Froment with his soloists Nicolai Gedda and Janine Micheau give us the best recording we are ever likely to get of it in this mono version from the 1950s.



Veel plezier ermee..