Les Nouveaux Caracteres / Sebastien d'Herin JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU Le Devin du Village

Perhaps Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Devin du Village has been waiting just for you for two centuries at the Theatre de la Reine at the Petit Trianon. On September 19, 1780, Marie-Antoinette was on stage, in costume, and was acting with her troop of aristocrats in front of a public of close friends. That evening, she was singing the role of Colette, the heroine of this one act opera composed in 1753 by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, perhaps the most celebrated work of its time. That exceptional evening, a veritable fantasy of the Queens who imagined that she was a shepherdess, has been resuscitated under the direction of Sebastien dHerin in a costumed reconstitution, staged in the original historic sets.

Ensemble Marguerite Louise / Gaétan Jarry MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER Les Arts Florissans

At that time, the custom was to allow great exibility in matters of orchestration, which was linked to whatever vital forces were available and depended on when the performance of the works was programmed. Charpentier’s genius lies in the fact that that he had the ability to conceive his scores, even the most minimalist of them as works of a major stature. 

Les Arts Florissants and La Couronne de Fleurs are an unquestionable example of this: the two operas became known as much for their subtlety and their intimacy in their original form (small ensemble and chorus of soloists), as for their depth and their density in their augmented form (use of an orchestra and a full choir). 

We have therefore chosen to explore the “augmented form”, and thus allow the works to offer a more varied orchestration, to benefit from the full choir), and also offer various theatrical effects such as the use of percussion instruments. Expanded in this way, these miniatures rehabilitate a Charpentier who was denied during his time of the great financial means from which only Lully was able to benefit. 

The extracts chosen from the Couronne de Fleurs present the pastoral as a sort of logical epilogue to the Arts Florissans, necessarily joining the springtime of the Arts inspired by Louis to that of Nature. (Gaétan Jarry)