When neglected works are revived, they are sometimes billed as forgotten masterpieces, regardless of merit. Others pique interest because of their relevance to an evolving genre and their influence on other composers.
Such is the case with the opera “Zémire et Azor” by the 18th-century Liégeois composer André Grétry. At a lecture before the American Classical Orchestra’s semistaged performance on Wednesday at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, Gail Miller Armondino said that the opera is relevant in part because of its possible impact on Mozart, who owned a copy of the score.
Highly melodic but harmonically uninteresting, the music accompanies a version of “Beauty and the Beast” involving Sander, a Persian merchant; his servant, Ali (the opera’s only comic character); Sander’s beautiful daughter, Zémire; and the beastlike Azor, a Persian prince.
Ms. Armondino (who wrote her doctoral dissertation on the opera) compared Mozart’s Sarastro in “The Magic Flute” and Grétry’s Sander and highlighted passages with a Mozartian veneer. The four-act opera has a libretto by Jean François Marmontel and relatively sophisticated character and plot development, with supernatural elements like winged dragons and a magic tableau.
It received its premiere at Fontainebleau in 1771 and was soon translated into several languages and widely performed elsewhere in Europe. It impressed the teenage Marie Antoinette, who later hired Grétry as her music director at court.
In this rendition, effectively directed by Cynthia Edwards, the arias were sung in French and dialogue spoken in English. The opera includes several attractive solo and ensemble arias, like a trio between Zémire — sung here with girlish charm by the clear-voiced soprano Molly Davey — and her sisters Fatmé and Lisbé, gracefully rendered by Amelia Feuer and Holland Kerker.
Ms. Davey sang “Air de la Fauvette,” the opera’s showpiece coloratura aria, with flair. At one point, she is accompanied by a solo flute, both imitating a birdcall. John Kawa portrayed Sander — a tenor role with a baritonal low range — with a dignified paternal air, worrying over the fate of his beloved Zémire.
Alex Guerrero brought apt comic timing to the buffo role of Ali, whose music evokes commedia dell’arte style. Matthew Peña, wearing a mask and cape for most of the opera, was charismatic as the tormented Azor, initially vengeful and bitter but transformed by his love for Zémire. The opera’s happy ending is illuminated with a cheery choral excerpt.
Thomas Crawford conducted the orchestra from the harpsichord in a lithe reading of the melodic score that was marred only by some messy brass and wind playing and occasional intonation problems. The lively overture depicts the storm that has shipwrecked Sander and Ali — evocatively setting the scene for their first encounter with Azor.