About the work
Le Magnifique is a comédie mise en musique in three acts by André Grétry to a libretto by Michel-Jean Sedaine – their first collaboration – premiered on 4 March 1773 at the Comédie-Italienne in Paris. Sedaine drew the story from a fable by La Fontaine, itself based on a tale from Boccaccio’s “Decameron” (Day Three, Novella Five).
Plot
The Florentine grandee Le Magnifique secretly courts the sheltered Clémentine. In a key scene, Clémentine lets a rose fall during a courtly encounter to signal her unspoken affection for him — a scene Grétry credited with drawing him to the story.
Cultural significance
Unlike Boccaccio’s source, which centres on adultery, Sedaine reshaped the plot into the courtship of an unmarried young woman, adapting the material to the conventions of opéra comique.