Aucassin et Nicolette (Grétry opera)

The work was first performed by the Comédie-Italienne at the Palace of Versailles on 30 December 1779 and subsequently at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris on 3 January 1780.

[1] The libretto is by Michel-Jean Sedaine, after the early medievalist Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye's Les amours du bon vieux tems, a modernised version of the Old French chantefable Aucassin et Nicolette.

When Garins fails to track Nicolette down, he concludes she will die in the forest anyway so there is no further point keeping Aucassin under lock and key.

A shepherd brings Aucassin a secret message from Nicolette and he sets off for the forest to meet her.

Aucassin swears he will kill himself rather than surrender, but he is told the truth about Nicolette's birth and, with this misconception cleared up, the lovers are free to marry.