While it is undeniable that the musical style of the last opera of Dauvergne and that of the first opera of Gluck are radically different, they resemble each other in the way both seek to put into music the most heart-wrenching human dramas. With Polyxène, Dauvergne made his last contribution to the genre of lyrical tragedy. Ten years later, when he read the first versions of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide, he hailed the amazing modernity of its libretto. As Director of the Paris Opera house, he agreed to put on the work on condition that Gluck committed himself to composing further operas: he was convinced that the revelation of this music would definitively wipe away the old repertoire. He was right.

In his vision of Marie-Antoinette, Patrick de Bana is not trying to keep to a chronological list of historical events. Introduced by Fate personified who also symbolises time, as well as by the protagonist’s shadow, snapshots retrace the states of Marie-Antoinette’s soul. Fate and the Shadow accompany the events by predicting and perpetrating them. At the start, still surrounded by members of the Court, the Comte de Mercy in particular, related to Marie-Thérèse, then by just a few of the faithful, her sister-in-law Madame Elisabeth and her confidant, the Swedish count Axel von Fersen, with Marie-Antoinette becoming ever more solitary. The imaginary figures of the people central to her life, her mother and her husband, finally accompany her to her death. Her dignity is the only thing that she has left.
For his ballet Marie-Antoinette - a subject that has never before been tackled in ballet form in Vienna - Patrick de Bana uses mainly music that was contemporary to the queen, who loved the arts very much. To this is added a specially composed section by Luis Miguel Cobofor the imaginary characters of "Fate" and "Marie-Antoinette’s Shadow".

The last lyrical work by Dauvergne turns its back on the established genres of lyrical tragedy and opera-ballet. With The Venetian Woman (La Vénitienne), the composer turns towards comic theatre. Based on an old libretto dating from the reign of Louis XIV (1705), he brings together the best of his know-how to produce a synthesis of the different strains of the modernity of his time: Rameau, Pergolesi, Grétryand Mondonville seem to have combined to write this work that is in turns tragic, tender and burlesque. The virtuosity of the airs, the inventiveness of the ballets and the pomp of a large orchestra are permeated by the sharp spirit of the Enlightenment.

From 1762 to 1773 Dauvergne was in charge of the most famous series of public concerts in Paris at the time: the Concert Spirituel. In touch with his time, he set to work putting on the programme the great foreign masters that he had discovered with wonderment: Pergolèse and Haydn. But, between the Stabat Mater of one and the symphonies of the other, people enjoyed above all applauding the instrumental virtuosos of the capital. They were expected to perform musical jousting matches where each one would show their brilliance in turn: and so the genre of sinfonia concertante was created, bringing about the best years of the concert halls during the Empire period until the Restoration.

Staged in the Académie royale, Hercule mourant succeeded the last work of Rameau, Les Paladins. With this work of great dramatic intensity, Dauvergne revealed himself to be the most talented successor to his model Rameau. While others like Mondonville aimed for lightness and brilliance, Dauvergne opted for a severe and noble style. His contemporaries applauded Hercule mourant for its "male and vigorous" music, its "truly pathetic" tone and its aspiration towards the "sublime" whose language the Enlightenment philosophers sought to define. Dauvergne took the French grand style to its fullest accomplishment here.

A recording will be made of this concert.

"This music comes from the earth, it is the music of peasants, cattlemen, gauchos", explains Alagna. "It is made for dancing. This is why we should not weaken it by changing the colour and the intentions of the arrangement. Just like all popular repertoires, they do not work if you sing them as you would for opera. You can use a trained voice, but especially not a voice that is too deep or too powerful. The voice should remain instrumental, it should play with feeling and swing, but don’t mess with the intimacy, which is one of the great strengths of these songs."

Amadis de Gaule by Johann Christian Bach offers one of the most surprising facets of the modernity of French opera in the late 18th century. Installed in England since 1762, the "London Bach" very soon became an essential figure on the music scene. This reputation earned him an invitation to Paris to compose an Amadis based on the libretto by Quinault, already set to music by Lully a century earlier. Composed against a background of rivalry between the partisans of Gluck and Piccinni, this lyrical tragedy, the composer’s last opera, may be regarded as his musical testament. With Mozart’s contemporary Idomeneo, Amadisis a perfect illustration of the fame of the French "model" throughout Europe on the eve of the Revolution.

After abstract forms, Angelin Preljocaj wanted to "tell a story" and to present an "enchanted extravaganza". This version is faithful to the Brothers Grimm, and plays on symbols that belong to both adults and children. "The wicked step-mother is without a doubt the central character to the tale", based as it is on a well-known story, the choreography can now concentrate on what "the bodies, the energies and the space are saying." With Snow White, Angelin Preljocaj brings together twenty-six male and female dancers from his company to create a great contemporary romantic ballet. In line with the major works of the dance repertoire such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty or The Sylph, it offers us the chance to dream around the legend of Snow White, at the heart of a choreographic world that is both baroque and fabulous over the music of Gustav Mahler.

The work is composed on a libretto in verse by Striggio, a 16th century poet, son of a musician and originally from Lombardy. For the first time in the history of music, words and music are combined to give a feeling of sense and emotion. The action does not prevail anywhere, and just the music of the words is magnified by the science and genius of the composer. Everything is just subtlety and finesse: Monteverdi succeeded in combining the learning of the madrigal from a previous time and set the foundations of the "new way": from now on composition sought to musically translate Man’s emotions and to depict their fragility through solo singers accompanied by instruments, the continuo. These instrumentalists had to develop the colours of orchestration and personal improvisations to give the feeling of a sentiment. They are the link, or rather the musical translation, between the notes written on a stave and a poetic text.

Les Arts Florissants are coming to Versailles to perform two "Royal Court" masterpieces, two chamber operas whose beauty remains dazzling, for two exceptional legends: the Loves of Venus and Adonis and those of Orpheus and Eurydice.

For its return to Versailles, the Ballet Béjart will be performing the choice of its director Gil Roman: three ballets for which the sensitivity and strength will make the company created by Maurice Béjart shine brilliantly.

Syncope (2010)
Design, choreography and direction by Gil Roman
Music by Citypercussion

Ce quel’Amourme dit(What Love Told Me) (1974)
Design, choreography and direction by Maurice Béjart
Music by GustaveMahler (Symphony no. 3: 4th, 5th and 6th movements)

Cantate 51 (1969)
Choreography: Maurice Béjart
Music: Johan-Sebastian Bach

Music was extremely important to Frederick II, he was a flautist and composer himself, and he closely supervised the work of his court composers (Graun, CPE Bach, Quantz, etc.), the construction of his opera house, and the rehearsals for each new performance, often making the artists furious with his constant interruptions on the libretto, the music or the interpretation of the works. Nevertheless, in Berlin he created an extraordinary musical competitiveness, as shown by the masterpieces that came out during his reign, such as JS Bach’s The Musical Offering which he dedicated to the king after their meeting in 1747, composed on a theme suggested by the monarch...

As part of the charitable activities of the Fondation Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon proposes a programme of masterpieces: Mozart is played by the young and splendid pianist David Fray, while the soprano CsillaBoross - who recently triumphed at the Scalain Milan - sings the great lyrical airs of Mozart, Verdi and Puccini.

The Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon has built up an international reputation in its three principal activities: as the in-house orchestra of the Montpellier opera house where it has acquired solid lyrical experience; as a national orchestra proposing each season a complete programme of symphonies and recitals with soloists; and as the key component of the Festival de Radio France et de Montpellier, performing and recording numerous resurrections of forgotten 19^th and 20^th century works.

This re-creation came about very unexpectedly, when we contacted Ryan Brown, musical director of the Opera Lafayette in New York. We invited him to perform Le Déserteur at Versailles, wonderfully recorded for Naxos the previous year, and he suggested re-creating Le Roiet le Fermier. It was discovered that the original stage sets used for Marie-Antoinette’s intimate performances still existed, preserved at the Petit Théâtre de la Reine! They were restored in the 19^th century and so will be used in the performances of Le Roi et le Fermier in Versailles, but this time at the "grand" Royal Opera, thanks to the preservation by the museum, and to the creation of a copy by Antoine Fontaine of one of backcloths which could not be moved.

The new production, based on the autographed and non-autographed manuscripts and printed editions available throughout the period the composer reworked Dardanus, features, for the first time, some of the most beautiful and inspired passages of a work perfectly illustrating French opera’s development during the Age of Enlightenment. At first Rameau was totally influenced by the restrictive form of Lully’s lyric tragedies and displayed a pronounced taste for "extraordinary" stories, but here a more intimate and human sense of drama blazes a very clear trail towards the classical period’s psychological probing.

This was a very special event: a complete Italian opera seria performed in Versailles, which was an exception! The libretto is obviously drawn from a legend that was well-known to the baroque audience, the tragic loves of Dido and Aeneas, where one leaves and the other pleads. The subject is more developed here than that of Purcell, Hasse wrote a grand opera and showed the warlike rivalries that will make Carthage fall, where Dido is the very coveted queen...Hasse’s splendid music, still baroque, very close to that of the younger Bach, and already heralding the arrival of Mozart, is a succession of arias about bravery, despair, entreaties and warlike flights of fancy: virtuosity and emotion are the driving force behind it.

This work is now being revived by Michael Hofstetter, previously the musical director of the Ludwigsburg Festival and with an expert knowledge of the unknown works of the second half of the 18th century: after having performed Salieri’s Les Danaides, Cimarosa’s Les Horaces et les Curiaces and Gluck’s Ezio, he brings Hasse’s Dido to life, the premier of which in Munich in March 2011 was a real event, with a magnificent cast and an elite orchestra, and conducted with a rare skill that glorified Hasse’s score, and will now be heard in France for the first time (since 1753...)

Three star performers of baroque opera bringing life to a legendary opera by Handel: the ideal platform, conducted expertly by Alan Curtis, for enthusiastically reviving the destiny of Ariodante!

For having sung at the Grand-Théâtre de Genève in particular, Joyce Di Donato offers the most striking Ariodante of recent years: a technique of steel, a radiant timbre and a dramatic involvement that leaves you flabbergasted, the American mezzo rises to the same heights as Von Otter did almost twenty years ago. And what a vocal cast! Karina Gauvin will be a bright golden Ginevra, leaving Marie-Nicole Lemieux, in the role of the villain Polinesso, to use her astonishing vocal and stage presence which she established as Vivaldi’s Orlando. The support roles will also be ones to watch, especially the delightful Sabina Puertolas as Dalinda and Matthew Brook as the King of Scotland. Alan Curtis may know how to bring together exceptional singers, but he also knows how to provide them with the ideal conditions for expressing their talent. A memorable evening, no doubt!

Offering the audience a journey through a century of music in the world of Tragic and Comic Opera, around variations on the theme of love, Sandrine Piau and Jerôme Corréas combine their sensitivity and taste for an exceptional concert that will coincide with the release of a CD on the Naïve label containing the same programme. New discoveries such as Scanderberg by Rebel and Francoeur, or Zingaraby Favartare presented alongside masterpieces by Rameau or the astonishing aria A-t-on jamais souffert... from Charpentier’s David et Jonathas. The triumph of love and its sweet sufferings...

Syracuse, in the year 1005. Argirio, President of the Senate, and Orbazzano are finally at peace. To bind this alliance, Argirion promises his daughter in marriage to Orbazzano, who is preparing for battle with the Sarrazins, led by Solamir. Amenaide is in love with Tancredi and sends him a letter that he will never receive. The letter is discovered, but it does not mention Tancredi by name, so she is imprisoned, stricken by despair for her lost love for Tancredi, who thinks she is in love with someone else...

The suffering of Amenaide, who does not relent and prefers to rot and die in prison rather than reveal her love for Tancredi. The dread of a father who condemns his daughter. The horror of an exiled lover who returns disguised to declare his love and leaves for war, haunted by his lover’s betrayal. Suffering, dread, horror, betrayal, a dreadful mistake, definitely a powerful drama.

"Performing songs is a challenge. As they are more intimate, they require a special emotional contact. I find it very interesting that the great composers of Italian opera also devoted themselves to writing songs. Exploring these songs can be compared to studying the sketches of the great painters that are very often not well known. These sketches are forgotten and this is because it is the major paintings that take all our attention. These apparently smaller pieces, these sketches, are nevertheless extraordinary works themselves, and they are also worth our attention. When I started to think about the way I wanted to involve myself with this music, I remembered the enriching experience of my project "¡Mexico!" for which we had created new arrangements of classic Mexican songs. I was very enthusiastic about the idea of starting this creative process once again, but this time in a different style, that of BelCanto. To be able to perform these treasures of BelCanto, to which new colouring and shade has been given, is an adventure that I am waiting for with impatience."

This project to reconstruct the first scene of Act 3 leads the public and the musicians towards a different way of approaching opera, from hearing it sung in French to the staging vocabulary.

This first scene of the last act of The Mastersingers is in some way the crux of the action. All the characters reveal themselves in their most symbolic feature: wisdom, passion, love, treachery and manipulation are intermingled with exceptiona lingenuity due to the genius of the librettist and composer Richard Wagner...

It was almost unthinkable to organise musical celebrations where 60 singers would perform music as five choirs. But the search for musical monumentality in baroque Italy responded so well to the dizzying architectural, decorative and pictorial effects of the buildings in which it was performed, and this resulted in timeless masterpieces. However, these have never been performed since the end of the 17^th century. The opportunity is given here by Hervé Niquet, wishing to celebrate 20 years of his Concert Spirituel, to hear once again the works of Striggio, along with those of Benevoliand Monteverdi, his worthy successors in these colossal, polychoral and virtuoso compositions with so much incredible musicality.

Using different choirs facing each other, each one accompanied by their own group of instruments, Hervé Niquetis reconstructing the architecture of the Royal Chapel in music, using it as a huge vertical sound space, and not in its traditional orientation "towards the altar".

It is the peak of Bach’s work, probably premiered on Good Friday 1727 at the Saint Thomas Church in Leipzig, the historical home of music for almost three centuries. Performed several times during Bach’s lifetime, it spearheaded the rediscovery of Bach in the 19^th century. Almost four hundred years after its premier, Felix Mendelssohn performed a version in Berlin, putting Bach back in first place in the heritage of German music, a position he has never left.

The use of a double choir is one of the main distinctive elements of this passion. This is what strengthens the dramatic force of the work, where the action scenes are followed by the great characters of the Passion, along with the crowd, a real witness and player in the drama. The result obtained by Bach is incomparable to other German passions of this time, which are much more measured, moderate and "considered". Here we are much closer to a grand biblical oratorio such as Handel composed at the same time in England, with alternating arias and choirs, describing and commenting on both the events of the Passion and the religious feelings that it inspires: indignation, piety and sorrow. We are at the peak of baroque rhetoric, the urgency of the drama is more perceptible than ever before.

It seems relevant to see a trilogy here, where the colours respond to each other intimately, within a wide dynamic: "First of all the hope and ideal that drives a whole life (no, 39); then the tragedy where existence is furiously struggled with (no. 40); finally, the battle surrendered, until triumph (no. 41 Jupiter) (Jean and Brigitte Massin). The conclusion of a symphonic work stopped by the death of the composer, they have become his orchestral testament.

Unequalled performers of the baroque and classical repertoire, the musicians of the Orchestre des Champs Elysées will be providing a reading of these three symphonies that will be historical, but also steeped in the vision of their conductor Philippe Herreweghe, whose affinity with Mozart no longer has to be proven, in order to discover the dark colours behind this dying sun and the flashes of genius that burst out at the end...

On 19 January 1787, Mozart was in Prague to perform his new composition. The 38th Symphony would show to his contemporaries a work with a purity of composition, overwhelmed with strength and vitality. The preliminary sketch of the theme that would become well known with The Magic Flute could be heard in this work. We should note the absence of the clarinet in the orchestration, which for the time was not so surprising, as this instrument had only been in existence for a hundred years and the composers of the Enlightenment were still not using it regularly. However, Mozart was the first to give this instrument its musical spurs with the composition of his Clarinet Concerto.
Written in 1791 during the last few months of his life, here the musician gives us a testament to humanity which could have been his own testament if we did not have his Requiem.

A 17^th century masterpiece, Armide portrays the impact of the Christian and Muslim worlds through the story of the invincible knight Renaud and his Muslim warrior-princess Armide. Obsession, jealousy and magic are the pillars of this story of tragic love. Armideis a psychological drama. In spite of her virginity, Armide has a powerful fascination for men and she takes all their aggressive instincts, sparking an irresistible sensual desire from them. Armide herself is protected because she has never known desire. As for Renaud, because of his virginity, he has a will of iron that makes him immune to Armide’s charms.

Marc Minkowskiand Julia Lezhnevaknow each other well as they have already worked together a number of times. Here they are in a programme that brings together the most beautiful arias for soprano from Mozart’s grand operas.

Julia Lezhneva’s recent European tour, as well as her debut at the 2010 Salzburg Festival, under the conductorship of Mark Minkowski was hugely successful and drew remarkable reviews from the international press.

At just 23 years’ old, Julia Lezhnevahas an impressive range and already has a great artistic maturity. She has a wide, very diverse, repertoire, from baroque and belcanto to romantic and contemporary music. A splendid voice that makes the most demanding music natural and seems to breathe new life into the most often heard and well-known works, she has conquered the concert halls and is establishing herself as one of the great operatic voices for the decades to come.

Another appearance at the Royal Opera at Versailles for Marc Minkowski, who is a regular here, for an unforgettable evening with whom Le Figaro is already calling "the new Callas"!

The story of Violetta, a woman of easy virtues, who agrees to renounce love and dies from consumption, was presented as a satire against the bourgeoisie, and was not well-liked by the audience. Nevertheless, Verdi wrote his most humane score. His music continually reminds us of the urgency, of passing time, the desire to live fast: "It’s already time, you are late" are the first words sung by the choir. Violetta knows that her days are numbered, and that in a few months at the most, her life will end.

It is from this point of view that the artistic production team, mostly female, have decided to tackle this masterpiece. Claire Servais was inspired by the primitive theme of love and death of the work. She is not seeking to just relate the story of a woman with a poor life, but to trace the psychological journey of the character.

This concert features the four great anthems for the Royal Coronation of George II in 1727, majestic choral masterpieces for a lavish performance at Westminster Abbey intended to achieve unprecedented musical pomp. Handel’s distinctive sense of melody blossoms in his massive choral works, of which this is the most splendid example.

Handel’s official music also includes two outdoor orchestral masterpieces. King George I commissioned Water Music as a "concert on the river". In July 1717 an orchestra sailing on a vessel beside the royal barge performed the famous piece on the Thames. It was instantly successful and has been popular ever since. The strong wind section, which is more audible outdoors, gives this elegiac yet lively orchestral suite a special colour.

Orpheus is mourning the death of his Eurydice when Cupid, sent by Jupiter, suggests going to search for her in the Underworld on condition that he appeases the Furies by singing to them, that he does not look at his lover, nor make any excuses to her.

This eternal theme has since inspired around twenty operas, Gluck’s Orpheus being mid-way (in time) between Monteverdi’s sublime Orfeo and Offenbach’s hilarious Orpheus in the Underworld. This mythical dimension is the inspiration behind the work of Frédéric Flamand who has agreed to direct an opera for the first time, supported in his resolutely innovative approach by the set designer Hans Op de Beeck, an internationally recognised figure in plastic arts. A first appearance at the Royal Opera by the Ballet de Marseille that will surely make its mark.

Since the 1950s, the musical world has been rediscovering how to perform period works in a way that has allowed Rameau to be given his original colours once again.

His operas are being performed again, his harpsichord pieces have won over music lovers and his great motets are praised. An heir to this "period" tradition, Alexandre Tharaud knows all the accents and effects of this music.

Nevertheless, he decided to play Rameau on the piano: it was a revelation. This Rameau for the Piano is coming to Versailles for the first time, for a concert that in some ways closes the circle of experiences, an ending in excellence.