Charpentier: Louis XIV's victories
Season
2025/2026
The singers of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles join forces with Hervé Niquet and the Concert Spirituel in a major collaboration around the works for double choir and double orchestra of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, among the most striking in the baroque repertoire.
Cast
Hervé Niquet musical direction
Fanny Valentin*, Marie Zaccarini*dessus
David Tricou, Anders Dahlinhautes-contre
Antoine Ageorges*, Baptiste Bonfante*tailles
Olivier Bergeron, Thierry Cartier* basses-tailles
*Membres de l’Académie de l’Opéra Royal
Chœur et Orchestre The Spiritual Concert
Les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (Fabien Armengaud, direction artistique)
Program
Te Deum H.145
Quare fremuerunt H.168
Exaudiat H.162
Canticum pro pace H.392
Domine salvum fac regem H.283
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Production
A co-production of the Royal Opera / Château de Versailles Spectacles, Le Concert Spirituel, and the Versailles Baroque Music Centre. Scores published by the Versailles Baroque Music Centre. This program is recorded on CD for the Château de Versailles Spectacles label.
Duration
1 hour 15 minutes
without intermission
Photo credit
Additional information
This first program immerses us in the splendor of the grand Parisian ceremonies of the 17th century, where music magnified faith and the royal figure. Although he never held a formal position at court, Marc-Antoine Charpentier was the preferred composer of powerful religious orders based in the capital, such as the Jesuits and the Theatines, who combined fervor and pomp to celebrate God and the king.
Alongside the Te Deum H.145 and the Exaudiat H.162, monumental works blending divine praise and royal exaltation, composed around 1672, revised in 1677 during the Franco-Dutch War and again in 1687 upon the recovery of Louis XIV, will resound the Canticum pro pace H.392. Halfway between a motet and sacred history, this piece, written around 1676, perhaps to celebrate a French victory during the Franco-Dutch War, expresses the yearning for peace, echoing the negotiations begun in Nijmegen in June 1676 and concluded in 1678. The program will conclude with the Domine salvum fac regem H.283, a solemn prayer addressed to God for the protection of the king.
A vibrant music where spiritual intensity and royal majesty are intertwined, magnified by the power of the forces and the writing, very Roman, with double choir and double orchestra.