Experience The Legendary Grandeur Of Versailles

In 1726, Handel composed Alessandro. It was "tailor-made" for a cast of stars, including the castrato Senesino, and prima donnas Francesa Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni. The story of the glorious conqueror of Asia is focused on Scythia, where two rival princesses fight over the hero's love: the Persian princess Roxana (his prisoner) and Lisaura a princess of Scythia. As Alexander becomes more and more convinced that he is the son of Jupiter, he must confront a conspiracy plotted against him, allowing him to see the real face of those close to him, both generals and mistresses. Handel made musical fireworks of this story of love, treachery and oaths of fidelity, taking the art of opera to its zenith. Its success was obvious with thirteen performances in one month. Revivals in 1727 and 1732 confirmed the celebrity of the piece, which was also performed in Hamburg (1726) and Brunswick (1728).

Max Emanuel Cencic plays the title role in this opera, under the direction of choreographer Lucinda Childs, and the fiery Athenian baton of Georges Petrou, whose recent recordings have been highly acclaimed: love, glory and treachery are in store for Alexander!

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Between 1786 and 1790 Mozart and Da Ponte composed the famous trilogy of which Don Giovanni is the second opera.
Composed in Prague in 1787 by the 31-year-old composer, this Opera Buffa with a strong dramatic impulse has enjoyed ongoing success since then, never leaving the repertoire. A masterpiece if there ever was one, Mozart and Da Ponte's Don Giovanni owes much to Molière's play, which magnificently incarnated the main character, this "great nobleman cruel man", as well as the female figures, the servant/double, and the imposing Commander. Based on this, Da Ponte provides Mozart with a series of short scenes full of twists and turns, disguises, fighting and "diabolical" scenes that punctuate great passionate arias. Mozart turns it into a flood of music that carries away the audience for three gripping hours, providing each role with highly characterised arias, many of which are among his most famous. To breathe new life into this opera of defiance (of society, of God, of oneself, etc.) Jean Paul Scarpitta displays his talent for portraying feelings and inspiring an international cast, lead by a fantastical vision of the piece. The richness of the baroque chandeliers makes the spirit of Mozart's mythical characters all the more exciting.

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The Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena has had a brilliant career over the past 15 years after she was revealed to international audience when she joined the troupe of the Vienna Volksoper in 1996 (aged only 23) and then conquered Paris in the production of Gluck’s Orfeo directed by Gardiner (1999). Since then, she has been a regular guest of the greatest stages worldwide: the Glyndebourne Festival with Simon Rattle (her husband since 2008), the Vienna Festival with Marc Minkowski, the Metropolitan Opera of New York with James Levine, as well as Berlin, London, Aix en Provence, etc. Handel, Bach and Mozart revealed her, but now she covers the whole repertoire with passion, thanks to her sumptuous timbre: from Melisande to Carmen, she lends her voice to the greatest heroines of opera.

In Versailles, Magdalena Kozena dedicates her concert in the Hall of Mirrors to Mozart and Haydn, an obvious combination. With Mozart, we should always be wary of appearances. His apparent lightness covers great depths, and inversely: because every aria is imbued with theatrical and operatic subtlety. In his operas, Mozart seeks to capture those moments when his characters switch to a different register, when conflicting feelings overlap (Cherubino's aria "Non piu cosa de" in Figaro), when regrets are added to love (Sesto lamenting the loss of his friend and sacrificing his beloved in "Deh per questo istanto solo" in La Clemenza di Tito), or when anguish submerges everything (the magnificent aria "Vado ma dove o dei" K.583 composed to be included in a work by Martin y Soler). He shared this art of psychological ambiguity with his master and friend Joseph Haydn in whose work appearances are just as deceptive. Composed in 1789, Ariadne at Naxos is a major dramatic piece with two long recitatives and two arias for soprano. This cantata by Haydn quickly became immensely popular for the way it depicts the inner torments of the Cretan princess abandoned by Theseus with striking psychological conviction. It was the vocal work of Haydn that Rossini preferred.

The extraordinary celebrity of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 and his Eine kleine Nachtmusik should not lead us to forget their exceptionally elaborate architecture and their formal perfection. As regards the latter, what do we really know? Mozart indeed regularly composed entertainments for private parties (a way for him to earn money quickly) but does not the irrepressible cheerfulness of this score indicate that he composed it above all for his own pleasure?

This programme, filled with a dizzying range of emotions, requires performers whose musical technique is perfect and who are supremely inventive in expressing feeling: mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena and conductor Nathalie Stutzmann fit the bill ideally. They can count on the rich tonality of the Orfeo 55 period instruments.

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William Christie, as we all now know, is passionately dedicated to gardening, plants, flowers, horticulture and everything to do with gardens. On his estate in Vendée he has devoted years of work to producing an outstanding reconstruction of the French-style formal garden, which last year became a musical garden thanks to the festival that he inaugurated there. When we spoke with William Christie about the 400th anniversary of the birth of Le Nôtre, he immediately volunteered to pay musical homage to this designer of genius. "Music for the King’s Gardens" was the title that he found for this project, with the concerts to be given pertinently but somewhat exceptionally under the Peristyle of the Grand Trianon. Between the Main Courtyard and the Gardens designed by Le Nôtre, in the warmth and fading light of the summer evening, the Peristyle will recover the splendour and intimate atmosphere that Louis XIV so admired in it. This marble colonnaded portico surrounded by plants will be the magnificent setting for works of music composed by contemporaries of Louis XIV and Le Nôtre.

Le Nôtre regarded gardens as the continuation of architecture by other means. For William Christie, they are also the most sumptuous setting for performing baroque music which evokes the open air, the pastoral world, hunting, nature in all its metamorphoses... So he decided to present three outstanding works here. First of all, two works that are directly linked to the work of Le Nôtre in the Gardens of Versailles: Lully composed "La Grotte de Versailles" in direct reference to the Thetys Grotto which held the splendid sculpture group of Apollo and the Nymphs (now to be seen in the Grove of Apollo’s Baths). This celebrated Italian-style grotto, of which only engravings remain, was perhaps the most precious ornament of the Gardens of Versailles in their early state. Built in 1666, it was demolished in 1684 to make way for the extension of the palace. In 1668, Lully and Quinault dedicated a vocal and instrumental work to it. A few years later, Lalande composed "Les Fontaines de Versailles", a mini-opera in six scenes, performed in Versailles on 5 April 1683. This also paid homage to the most famous ornaments of the Gardens of Versailles, these fountains whose spectacular water features have come down through the centuries without losing their celebrity. "Louis brings in the new season accompanied by games and love” reads the libretto: could one imagine a finer homage to the spring and the King? William Christie will combine these two works by musicians who were closest to the King, in an evocation of the gardens of Louis XIV.

When Charpentier composed his pocket-size opera Actéon in 1684, it was not for the King, but for the Duchesse de Guise, whose musical entertainment he directed. The work was a success and has continued to be performed many times until our own day. Charpentier, who probably sung the title role at its first performance, based the libretto on the account in Ovid’s Metamorphoses of the passions and the misadventures of the young hunter Actaeon, who loves Diana, the goddess of hunting and virginity, whom he unexpectedly sees bathing in the forest which is her domain. To punish his indecent curiosity, she transforms him into a stag who is then devoured by his own hounds. A baroque parable of the ravages of love, Actéon is one of the masterpieces of the composer and of all the music of the late 17th century.

We can be sure that William Christie and his Arts Florissants, in this ideal setting, will give these works.

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In a few years, Marie Nicole Lemieux has won her place in the hearts of French music-lovers. This Canadian with her devastating emotional range has seduced and surprised audiences, first in Vivaldi, with her exceptional Orlando; then in Handel and all the baroque repertoire, with Alan Curtis and Jean Christophe Spinosi, she has displayed dramatic talents that marvellously express the outpouring of passions.

Rossini is obviously made for her: Marie Nicole Lemieux enthrals the audiences of his operas, passing from anguish to fury. She appears here for the first time in the Hall of Mirrors, accompanied by another original figure of the music scene, her long-standing associate Jean Christophe Spinosi. This Rossini cocktail is sure to sparkle!

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Newly settled in England after his sparkling early career in Italy, the young Handel won over London audiences with his first opera Rinaldo in 1711. After several years of steady progress in his career that took him up to the front ranks of the British musical scene, Handel had another resounding success in 1717 with the performance of his Water Music before the King during a cruise along the Thames. There followed a rather unexpected episode lasting 2 years: in the summer of 1717, Handel became the resident composer of the Count of Carnarvon, the future Duke of Chandos, a wealthy aristocrat and generous patron, producing works for his singers and private orchestra in his sumptuous residence at Cannons, north of London. Here he composed the Chandos Anthems, a first version of the oratorio Esther, concertos grossos, and the masque Acis and Galatea. Yet in 1719 his fame called him back to London for the setting up of the Royal Academy of Music, a company dedicated to producing operas in the King's Theatre, to which he gave his finest years as a lyric composer.

Acis and Galatea, composed probably in 1718, is one of the three versions of the myth of Acis and Galatea that Handel put into music. A first version, an Italian Serenato, was composed in 1708 in Naples with the title Aci, Galatea e Polifemo. Taking part of the music of this first version for Cannons, Handel completely reworked the lyrics: the text was in English this time and he sought inspiration from the works of Purcell to compose a very operatic and dramatic intrigue. This "pastoral" with its numerous imitations of nature magnificently confronts the love between Acis and Galatea with the fury of Polyphemus. In the peaceful setting of Arcadia, the nymph Galatea falls in love with the shepherd Acis. But the lovers have only begun their romance when a rival comes on the scene: the Cyclops Polyphemus. Galatea resists the advances of the monster whom Acis dares to defy. Polyphemus replies to the bravado of the insolent pair by hurling from his mountain-top a rock that kills his rival, leaving the choir and the nymph in tears that form an eternal stream.

Inspired duets, melodies filled with the sweet yearnings of love and bravura bass arias sung by the enraged giant ensured the success of this Acis in English long beyond its premiere at Cannons. Handel went back to it near the end of his life for a third version, and posterity has often performed this "semi-opera" whose music is incontestably among Handel’s finest: Mozart made a German adaptation of it in 1788, adding brass instruments and clarinets and honing the German text to best express the lyrical richness of his illustrious predecessor!

To render the full freshness and vitality of this pastoral masterpiece, Robert King is the ideal conductor and director: he recorded the work back in 1990, and has interpreted it on numerous tours. Surrounded by inspired singers, with the youthful soprano Sophie Junker, the bravura tenor Joshua Ellicott and the heroic bass David Wilson-Johnson, Robert King intends to repeat in Versailles the success he obtained with his two memorable performances of The Messiah last year.

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After the release of his splendid recording of Bach’s Mass in B minor, Jordi Savall has decided to mark the Tercentenary of the Peace of Utrecht (1713), which put an end to twelve years of war between France and half of Europe, in a programme that brings together four masterpieces that are highly representative of European sacred music as well as being in Latin, for soloists, choir and orchestra, four compositions that celebrate the divine grandeur, the royal power and the establishment of peace.

In 1660, Louis XIV was 21 and married the Infanta of Spain. He inaugurated his absolutist reign in 1661. Lully (then aged 28, he became Superintendent of the King’s Music the following year) celebrated before the Court (the audience included Anne of Austria and the young Queen Marie Thérèse) in his "Jubilate Deo" the Peace of the North which completed the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659. But, alas, war was to return regularly in Europe until, at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, a half-century later, the Peace of Utrecht once more established stability between France and Spain. This early Grand Motet by Lully is already a splendid work, with vast choral set-pieces and melodies that were later to seal the success of his lyrical tragedies. No other European composition of this period matches its accomplished "magnificence". This stately ceremonial French style already so recognisable was to conquer Europe...

Composed in 1700, Vivaldi’s Gloria has the force of conviction of the great works celebrating the divine glory, and features all the stunning virtuosity of the Venetian maestro. Written for the famous choir of the Ospedale della Pietà, the work has a rare inventiveness and the trumpet blast of Fame has saluted its bravura musical accomplishment ever since.

Handel composed his Jubilate to celebrate the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713, in a style that combines the tradition of Purcell and musical influences of Italy from which Handel had just left. This elaborate work celebrates the glory of the English Court as much as the Peace...

Lastly, Bach’s Magnificat is an outstanding example of the perfection achieved in the work of the Cantor, using more than ever before combinations of contrapuntal structure and mathematical figures to create a work of stunning beauty and eloquence, a veritable tour de force for choirs. Could this adoration by the Virgin Mary of the newly-born Christ be the choral masterpiece of Bach?

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After Roland, Persée, Bellérophon, and quite recently Phaëton, Christophe Rousset continues with Amadis to recreate the great 17th century tragedies of Lully. The score is one of the most fascinating to be left to us by Lully, a masterpiece of the French cultural heritage. It contains all the ingredients of Lyrical Tragedy, which are not only balanced with magnificent skill but also extremely accomplished and reaching sublime levels.

The subject was chosen by Louis XIV in person, turning away from themes drawn from Greco-Roman antiquity to a libretto based on the celebrated medieval tale of Amadis de Gaule by Montalvo, an absolute novelty in the French repertoire. Another novelty is that the prologue is directly linked with the action. As for the “symphonic” pages backed up by the kettledrums-trumpets duets, they deserve our full attention, notably the final chaconne, the finest in French Opera, if we had to pick just one jewel. The airs imbued with feelings, the famous “Bois épais” and “Tu me trahis malheureux”, swing constantly between heroic courage and amorous sadness.

The work was premiered in 1684 in Paris, as its Versailles premiere had been postponed to the next year following the death of the queen. It was performed in Paris and the provinces until 1772.

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Mozart's Requiem, his unfinished masterpiece and musical testament, is a timeless sacred composition with an impact that goes far beyond its liturgical context. Mozart seems to have composed it in premonition of his own death. In fact, it was a commission from Count Walsegg for the anniversary of his wife’s funeral. The Count could not have made a better choice than Mozart, who had then recently become deputy choirmaster of the Cathedral of Saint Stephen and was working at the time on reviving the musical form of the mass. The highly gifted and prominent composer of operas in Vienna, he also guaranteed a certain "aura", even though the Count claimed the authorship of his other commissions before revealing the truth.

The choice of the key of D minor is very significant: Mozart used it only in works featuring redemptive suffering, for example in Don Giovanni. By the time of his death on 5 December 1791, the composer had entirely completed the Requiem and the Kyrie, and mostly defined the content of the next five pieces, from the Dies Irae to the Confutatis. It was to his pupil Franz-Xaver Sussmayr that fell the heavy task of completing this music without betraying its inspiration. Since them, the work has provoked a thousand hypotheses, numerous versions of the unfinished pages and, above all, splendid interpretations: it magnetises both listeners and performers, and finally imposes itself fully in the form in which Mozart left it, as if these last notes from the pen of the dying composer were his most precious....

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) was one of the most outstanding musical figures of the first half of the 18th century. Born in Bohemia, trained in Prague and then in Italy, he developed an original style whose inventiveness and expressiveness influenced his contemporaries. Most of his career was spent as Choirmaster in the Court of Saxony, in the Dresden that Bach knew so well: musicians of the same generation, each found his own style in the composition of sacred choral music which had a profound influence on the European styles that followed them. While Bach produced hundreds of Cantatas, Zelenka devoted his talent to masses and litanies, producing an enormous body of sacred music yet to be properly explored. The style of the Miserere in C minor by Zelenka, moving from passionate to serene airs, illustrates the intense dramatisation of the composer’s work in the last years of his life. He embraced the Italian influence in vogue at this period, gradually integrating it into his work and producing striking contrasts: for example between the highly syncopated and even staccato rhythm of the Miserere, and the flowing Italian aria of the Gloria patri.

For his second concert in Versailles this year with his new orchestra playing period instruments, the Insula Orchestra, Laurence Equilbey has of course called on his splendid Choeur Accentus, whose perfection and responsiveness are hailed for its performances of Mozart’s choral works. Four outstanding soloists, who are also subtle interpreters of Mozart, will complete this magnificent array of talents: to coincide with this programme, the Insula Orchestra will make its first recording for the Naïve label.

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Over the past decade, the Austrian harpist Christina Pluhar has imposed a musical style forged from a range of experiences: period instruments with their warm timbre backing singers drawn from all the Latin world who produce melodic emotions and styles inspired by popular and ancestral traditions. This melting-pot of sonorities and temperaments, skilfully prepared and guided by Christina Pluhar, gives an astonishingly timeless result that echoes the deepest emotions expressed through the centuries, reviving the simplest and most direct piety, the rhythms of the popular dances that shaped the music of all the Mediterranean, and always the "meaning" of music, which celebrates each passion of our lives, each stage of humanity. The public has fallen under the spell of these swaying rhythms that enliven the most moving lamentations and the sheer perfection of the Arpeggiata ensemble, whose performances give an impression of improvisation and who regularly sing with the greatest artistes such as Philippe Jaroussky.

Christina Pluhar has devised the Via Crucis programme to put into perspective works evoking the Passion of Christ from the 17th century seen through the prism of the living Italian and Corsican musical tradition. Holy Week is still celebrated with fervour in the Western Mediterranean, where the tradition of these ceremonies has been kept very much alive in Corsica, Sicily and all southern Italy. The Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross, which gives its name to the programme, is a traditional celebration in the form of a procession and hymns. The typically spectacular and poignant expression of redemptive suffering with which it is imbued is strikingly evoked in the intricate works of the first successors of Monteverdi that are presented here. The liturgical pieces from Italy in the years 1630-1650 which fervently celebrate the Passion are characterised by an almost schizophrenic hesitation between sorrow and exultation: between the Sorrow of the Virgin at the foot of the Cross and the Joy of the Resurrection so near, between the suffering of Christ on the cross and the exultation in the Revelation that has been accomplished. This celebration of redemptive suffering, of the meaning of pathos, and of edification through pain, are perfect illustrations of baroque religiosity.

Via Crucis invites us to follow the stages of the Passion of Christ: we will hear Mary weeping and Jesus caught up in his agony, but we will also hear the angels in flight… The link-up between the works of the baroque period and those of the Italian and Corsican musical tradition crystallises the emotional impact of this commemorative ceremony celebrated by the Arpeggiata ensemble, with the contrasting voices of Raquel Andueza and Vincenzo Capezzuto, and the Corsican Barbara Furtuna vocal quartet. Coming to us from a still lively tradition, these pieces of music draw us into the rich heritage of popular piety which enchants us like the finding of a long-lost treasure.

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Dramma per musica in three acts, libretto by Antonio Maria Lucchini Farnace plays a very important role in the constellation of Vivaldi's operas. Composed in 1727 for Venice, it was revived in Prague, Pavia, Mantua, Treviso and in Ferrare in 1739, each time under the direction of The Red Priest, who significantly modified the score for each occasion, constantly improving the piece. While these versions may not have been performed, they did leave us the final version of Farnace, with its great dramatic force, inspired arias and magnificent orchestration: For the occasion, Vivaldi had partially revised and rewritten the score, adding a number of new arias, in his willingness to present the most accomplished result possible. Indeed, it is the last Opera score composed by Vivaldi, who died in 1741. Farnace, King of Pontus who has been defeated by the Roman armies of Pompey, commands his wife Tamiri to sacrifice their son to spare him the humiliation, and is preparing to take his own life. But Berenice, Tamiri's mother, succeeds in hiding the child and joins forces with Pompey to seize power, thus establishing dramatic intrigue. For three years, Max Emanuel Cencic has been playing the title role of this brilliant piece, having recorded it for EMI and performed it in staged and concert performances on numerous occasions. Cencic is backed by a splendid cast, of whom Vivica Genaux stands out

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Marc Minkowski offers us an original comparison between both versions, performed on the same evening by a cast of outstanding performers for a Wagner bicentenary that also pays homage to his influence in France.

On moving to Paris in 1839, Wagner, in his repeated efforts to get his work performed on the stage of the Paris Opera out of financial necessity sold the treatment of a new work for 5oo francs, in July 1841, to Leon Pillet, the new manager of the Opera. He conceived his adaptation of the Flying Dutchman during the tumultuous flight from his debtors that took him to France. Entrusted in 1841 to Paul Foucher and Henri Revoil, the French libretto was enriched with new influences – especially The Phantom Ship by Frederick Marryat – and then assigned to the composer Pierre-Louis Dietsch. This unsuccessful encounter between Wagner with the Parisian opera scene led to the composition of two distinct works: Le Vaisseau fantôme ou Le Maudit des mers (The Phantom Ship or The Accursed of the Seas), a fantastic opera by Dietsch, first performed in the Opéra de Paris on 9 November 1842; and Der Fliegende Holländer by Wagner, first performed in Dresden on 2 January 1843 (and not until 1897 in Paris). If Dietsch was preferred to Wagner for writing the French libretto, it was first of all because of his closeness to Léon Pillet, who has just appointed him director of the choirs of the Opera. A celebrated composer of religious music, he had been Choirmaster of the chapel of Saint-Eustache church since the 1830s. The Parisian musical press paid homage to his knowhow and his opera was performed eleven times (but the staging visibly lacked the "fantastic" aspects that the libretto required).

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The Orangerie at the Palace of Versailles will, for one night, become the most elegant, the most fantastic and the most refined ballroom...

Versailles, an emblematic and sublime place, is still imbued with the atmosphere of the royal festivities that lit up the Palace and its Gardens. These extravagant, elegant and frivolous festivities have entered the collective imagination.

Kamel Ouali, accompanied by 50 artistes, creates a place of splendour and marvels to recreate the atmosphere of the Menagerie of Versailles. The genres and the periods overlap and combine to provoke a feeling of timelessness, an atmosphere that is both captivating and extravagant.

Costumed and masked, the guests encounter surprising figures and decors, and, spurred on by the creative choreography of Kamel Ouali, dance all night to the sound of the best DJs. They can also retire for a chat in more intimate areas around surprise snacks and drinks.

At dawn, the guests are ushered to the Ballroom Grove, the finest spot in the Royal Garden, for breakfast and the last dance.

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For the first time since 1686, Versailles will be recreating its Royal Carrousel: horses, baroque costumes and music from operas made this spectacular show the most popular of all the court’s entertainments, and the only one intended for a wide audience. The glories of the Grand Royal Carrousel blaze out once more!

For the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of André Le Nôtre, it seems appropriate to look into a form of spectacle which has now disappeared, but which was perhaps the main form of entertainment in France for several centuries, before the invention of Opera – the Carousel. Carousels were of Italian origin. The word stems from the contraction of two Latin words "carrus-soli", which means "cart of the sun". Inherited from the medieval tournament, the carousel was half-way between equestrian parades and Italian war games. The King, along with members of the high nobility, used to take on allegorical roles. The Carousels replaced tournaments, which were outlawed in France after the tragic death of Henry II in 1559 during a joust with the Count of Montgomery.

The recreation of a Royal Carousel – the first since the reign of Louis XIV – will therefore be emblematic: set in the glorious centuries of monarchy, this spectacle bringing together the Kingdom's best horsemen on the most renowned horses of the royal and princely stables, for an allegorical evocation of the majesty of the combating King and his "knights", will be an equestrian and pyrotechnic event worthy of the great Royal Carousels which left their mark in the History of France.

The Royal Carousel of 1662 will serve as a reference: it was held on 5 and 6 June, in the courtyard of the Palais des Tuileries, in front of 10 to 15 thousand people gathered in temporary stands. A grand stand was built for the Queen Mother Anne of Austria, Queen Marie-Thérèse and the ladies of the court. The participants were divided into five quadrilles named after the nations which were considered as the most prestigious and the most exotic in the 17th century: Romans (headed by King Louis XIV himself), Persians (headed by Monsieur), Turks (headed by the Prince of Condé), Indians (headed by the Duke of Enghien) and American Indians (headed by the Duke of Guise). The horsemen competed in ring tilts and head competitions: the ring tilts consisted in passing the lance through a hanging ring, while the head competition involved spearing a head (that of a Turk, Moor or Medusa) placed at a certain height, on the end of one's lance. The Marquis of Bellefonds won the head competition while the Count of Sault won the ring tilt. It was at the Carousel of 1662 that Louis XIV chose the Sun as his emblem and adopted the motto "Nec pluribus impar". The former Frondeurs represented planets or elements of nature, whose fate is totally dependent on the light of the sun.

Another famous Carousel opened the great festivities of the Plaisirs de l'Ile Enchantée (Pleasures of the Enchanted Island) held at Versailles in May 1664: "The King, representing Roger, followed them on one of the world's most beautiful horses, whose fire-coloured harness glittered with gold, silver and precious stones. His Majesty, like all the horsemen in his quadrille, was armed like the Greeks and wore a silver breastplate richly decorated with gold and diamonds. His apparel and all of his actions were worthy of his rank; his helmet was incomparable; and never did a freer demeanour, nor a more belligerent one, place a mortal above other men."

The 2013 version of the Great Royal Carousel of Versailles, to be staged by Jean Philippe Delavault, will bring together the essential elements of the Carousels of the past: firstly the magnificence of the horses, chosen to evoke those of the French Court, like the numerous Andalusian and Lusitano horses which were the glory of the Grande Ecurie. Then the expert horsemen, the King and the Nobles, each at the head of a quadrille, performing an allegorical spectacle where the virtues of the monarch are fully brought out to light: the Sun and Apollo will incarnate the King. Baroque music will accompany the spectacle, made up of sumptuous costumes to adorn the horsemen of the Belgian Riding Academy and the acrobats, before a fireworks finale worthy of Versailles, produced by Groupe F which has been producing the great shows of Versailles since 2007.

Rates from 379€ (includes a classic room and 2 tickets in 1st category). Information and bookings: (0033) 1 30 84 51 20 Or by email : reservations.trianon@waldorfastoria.com

It’s the secret history of an unknown composer. In June 2012, Cecilia Bertoli held two sumptuous recitals in Versailles (Handel, and Sacrificium) from which the audience emerged enthusiastic and fascinated by the Diva. She secretly filmed in the Palace and the park over five days and nights aseries of sumptuous airs from the repertoire of opera and sacred music in the company of Diego Fasolis and his extraordinary Barocchisti. Exceptional performances and dizzying feats of interpretation resounded in the Hall of Mirrors thanks to the magic of Cecilia Bartoli… And a shadow made its presence felt there: that of the composer of these magnificent arias, unknown to the general public and whose name had been kept secret even from the musicians who played the scores!

This intriguing and splendid project will soon be revealed by Cecilia Bartoli in Versailles after an international tour and the broadcasting of images for the celebrations. Return to the Palace with the team that dreamed up this project, with their principal mission to bowl the audience over and reach its heart, as always, by producing a thrilling experience worthy of the celebrated Liaisons Dangereuses!

Rates from 799€ (includes a classic room and 2 tickets in 1st category). Information and bookings: (0033) 1 30 84 51 20 Or by email : reservations.trianon@waldorfastoria.com

For almost 50 years now, Sir John Eliot Gardiner has explored the riches of Western choral music with the choir that he founded, the Monteverdi Choir. This fervent passion for vocal music, the expression of the soul, is expressed above all for Gardiner in the interpretation of the works of Bach, the summit of the baroque style and the cornerstone of sacred music. Hundreds of concerts and dozens of recordings have been dedicated by the Monteverdi Choir to the Cantor of Leipzig. His crazy but brilliant idea, the Bach Pilgrimage of 2000, took Gardiner and his singers on a long tour to perform and record the entire sacred cantatas of Bach in the most prestigious sites in Europe. It resulted in memorable concerts, immortalised by the CDs issued in their wake: the finest Bach collection imaginable.

In September 2011, Gardiner chose the Royal Chapel of Versailles to perform the Motets of Bach: this was a sumptuous concert, whose recording in London a few weeks later testified to the musical perfection achieved by the composer in terms of both baroque rhetoric and religious depth (a CD unanimously hailed). In June 2012, the concert devoted to sacred music of the English Renaissance left the audience speechless at such perfection, including the long encore of processional litanies that the Monteverdi Choir performed in the sacristy, revealing the immemorial meaning of the holy place. This time, in June 2013, Sir John Eliot Gardiner chooses goes to two outstanding works from the liturgical compositions of Bach: the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio. The first, composed for Leipzig in 1725, describes the surprise of the Apostles before the empty tomb: the miracle of the Resurrection. The second, composed for Leipzig a decade later, in 1735, evokes the mystical ascent of the body of Christ into Heaven, his definitive victory over death. Marking two of the most crucial moments of the Christian liturgy, these two works allowed Bach to draw on all his evocative genius, while remaining firmly anchored in the faith of the Lutheran tradition. As for each concert by Gardiner in the Royal Chapel, addressing God familiarly is the musical challenge...

Rates from 379€ (includes a classic room and 2 tickets in 1st category). Information and bookings: (0033) 1 30 84 51 20 Or by email : reservations.trianon@waldorfastoria.com

The Ballet School of the Opéra National de Paris celebrates its tercentenary in 2013. The oldest ballet school of the Western world is also the birthplace of academic classical dance. Its foundation goes back to the reign of Louis XIV, which began and ended with two decisions that made dance an independent art:

• the setting up of the Académie Royale de la Danse (Royal Academy of Dance) in 1661,
• the setting up of the École de l’Académie (School of the Academy) in 1713 “to train pupils capable of playing the roles that will be assigned to them.”
Today, the initial vocation of the school has remained intact. The School has “the mission of training the dancers of the Ballet and ensuring the professional training of dancers» (Decree of 5 February 1994 establishing the status of the Opéra National de Paris). By moving from the Court to the theatre, dance entered the professional sphere. Performers must be trained for the shows put on by the Opera.
For many years, the School held its classes in the buildings of the Paris Opera, in premises poorly adapted to its training mission. The conditions endured by the students of this period led to them being called the “little rats of the Opera”. It is today, under the direction of Elisabeth Platel, an exceptional school that trains many of the best dancers in the world who go on to perform for the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris.
For this tercentenary year, the annual show traditionally performed on the stage of the Palais Garnier opera house will also delight the audience in the Royal Opera house of Versailles: a return to its roots for this school founded by Louis XIV to serve an art with which he was very familiar after practising it brilliantly himself for many years. This exceptional show will bring together two national symbols to celebrate 300 years of history and tradition, from baroque to contemporary dance.

Rates from 409€ (includes a classic room and 2 tickets in 1st category). Information and bookings: (0033) 1 30 84 51 20 Or by email : reservations.trianon@waldorfastoria.com

A visionary if there ever was one, Malandain has taken hold of this monument of Ballet, above all the score by Prokofiev, to provide us with a very personal vision. Malandain remains faithful to the dramatic art of Cinderella and explores some of the subjects he holds dear: the quest for an ideal, truth revealed, the duality that lies dormant in each one of us.

Rates from 409€ (includes a classic room and 2 tickets in 1st category). Information and bookings: (0033) 1 30 84 51 20 Or by email : reservations.trianon@waldorfastoria.com