Grétry's L'Amant jaloux ou les fausses apparences (The Jealous Lover, or False Appearances)
Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau (stage director), Jérémie Rhorer (conductor) – With Magali Léger (Léonore), Claire Debono (Isabelle), Maryline Fallot (Jacinte)...
Cast
Anne-Charlotte Rousseau — Assistant stage director
Thibaut Welchlin — Stage sets
Antoine Fontaine — Painted Canvases
Claudine Crauland — Costumes
Program notes
No less an admirer than Mozart praised L’Amant jaloux (The Jealous Lover), a comedic masterpiece from the pen of one of France’s greatest classical composers. Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau’s vivid 2010 period production returns the work to Versailles’s Royal Opera where it premiered, while Jérémie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie bring Grétry’s melodies to life in all of their delectable charm.
With a libretto electrified by French Enlightenment themes and a musical score that anticipates Mozart’s arresting musical storytelling, André Grétry's L'Amant jaloux is a brilliant gem of the 18th-century musical comedy. Premiered to great success in November 1778 at Versailles, its tale of true love and mistaken identity was drawn from the trailblazing English playwright Susanna Centlivre's The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret, a play that sharply criticizes tyrannical patriarchy and advocates for the rights of women. Dive into the hijinx and meet Léonore and her Don Alonze (the jealous lover himself), Léonore's dear friend Isabelle and her savior Florival, and Léonore's despotic father Don Lopez and the gossipy servant Jacinte!
Photo: © Pierre Grosbois
