Calendar

Venetian Splendours

Gloria & Magnificat by Vivaldi

Famous virtuoso violinist, and the author of over 500 instrumental concertos, sacred choral works and over 40 operas, Vivaldi wrote a lot of master pieces for the Ospedale della Pietà, a religious institution where young orphan or abandoned girls received a musical education, among which the Gloria RV 589 is one of his most beloved ones.

"Vivaldi is simply overwhelming. To approa...
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Platée by Jean-Philippe Rameau

Opera-ballet in three acts

A nymph of the marshes thought herself worthy of sharing the bed of Jupiter, the god of gods: she will be the laughing stock of all Olympus. A fable as funny as it is cruel, for which Rameau's genius has surpassed itself, with inexhaustible inspiration and daring of an extraordinary modernity. Shirley and Dino, these marvelous troublemakers, sign a hilarious and iconoclastic staging, under the complicit baton of Hervé Niquet, a great sp...
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Ariane & Bacchus by Marin Marais

Tragedy in music in a prologue and five acts

Known as a performer and author of pieces for the viola da gamba, Marin Marais was also an opera musician and even conductor of the orchestra for several years. He composed four lyrical tragedies, one of which, Ariadne et Bacchus, has yet to be rediscovered. With a libretto rich in characters and contrasting situations, a dense and dramatic score, and colorful orchestration, this is undoubtedly one of the mast...
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Mass by Gounod and Saint-Saëns

Sacred Saint-Saëns, centenary of his death

With this program, Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel wish to highlight the rarely performed sacred works of 19th century French composers, whose operas are nowadays mostly known to the public.

Hervé Niquet has put together a program mixing traditional Gregorian antiphons and rare works by Gounod and Saint-Saëns, all marked by the same neo-classical approach.
Gounod's Messe Vocale, which he s...
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Le Malade Imaginaire by Molière and Charpentier

Comedy-ballet in three acts

Written when Molière knew he was ill and dying, Le Malade imaginaire gives no hint of the author's anguish at his imminent death. A joyous and exuberant festival, the Carnival will gradually triumph over the state of sadness in which Argan entraps his entourage. At once a cocoon, a fortress and a prison, the master of the house maintains this protection by subjugating his entire household. Isolated, they find themself surround...
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Le Mariage forcé de Molière et Lully

Comedy-ballet in three acts

Le Mariage forcé is the second comedy-ballet composed by Molière and his first real collaboration with Lully. The composition in successive "sketches" is still typical of the ballet de cour from which the comedy-ballet derives, and in this respect quite close to Les Fâcheux (1661).

By creating a subtle general movement alternating between acceleration and rest, Molière and Lully composed a work in which thei...
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Le Sicilien ou l'Amour peintre by Molière and Lully

Comédie ballet in one act

Le Sicilien owes its brevity to its place in the immense and sumptuous Ballet des Muses, of which it was only one of the fourteen "entries" - but the very last, and therefore the "highlight". In barely an hour, Molière and Lully outdid themselves. All the codes of courtly comedy are respected: the place of the love story in the gallant tone, the refinement of the modes of expression, and, of course, the exaltation of Fr...
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