Concert

Persée (original 1682 version) opera by Lully

Season

2024/2025

Opera in concert

Tragedy in music in five acts and a prologue in praise of Louis XIV, composed in 1682 to a text by Philippe Quinault. Persée is the most spectacular of all Lully's operas, with its omnipresent use of the marvellous, its crowd scenes, and its complex scenic devices involving both the ceiling and the underside, making the work almost impracticable for the theatre today.

Cast

Mathias VidalPersée
Anaïk MorelAndromède / l'Hymen
Hélène CarpentierMérope
Thomas DoliéPhinée
Michèle LosierCassiope
Matthieu LécroartCéphée
Reinoud Van MechelenMercure
David TricouMégathyme / Premier Éthiopien / Euryale
David WitczakPhronime / Deuxième Éthiopien / un Cyclope/ Méduse / Triton / le Grand Prêtre
Alexandre BaldoTroisième Éthiopien / une Divinité infernale / Sténone / Idas
Olivia DorayLaVertu / une Nymphe guerrière / Vénus
Marine Lafdal-FrancLa Fortune / L’Amour

Hervé Niquetdirection

choir and orchestra Le Concert Spirituel

Les Pages & les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (Fabien Armengaud, artistic direction)

Programme

Tragedy in music, in a prologue and five acts, to a libretto by Philippe Quinault based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, first performed at the Académie royale de musique on 17 April 1682.

Production

Coproduction Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Le Concert Spirituel and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles Score by Nicolas Sceaux, Le Concert Spirituel - Hervé Niquet.

Duration

3h00

including intermission

Photo credit

Mathias Vidal (Persée) at the Opéra Royal de Versailles © Château de Versailles Spectacles

Additional information

Opera sung in French, with French and English surtitles

A 1770 version of Lully's Persée has been recorded for Alpha Classics in the Château de Versailles Spectacles collection. The album was released in March 2017 under the reference ALPHA 967.

This concert will be recorded on audio for the label Alpha Classics / Outhere Music France

Lully, creator of the genre of French opera, ‘tragedy in music’, knew how to surround himself with exceptional collaborators, in order to give the ‘French’ spectacle a dazzling effect like no other. As La Bruyère remarked, ‘French opera enchanted the eyes, the ears and the mind’.

In Persée, the most spectacular of all Lully's operas, the orchestra and chorus play an ever-increasing role, while the main characters are no longer standardised figures but flesh-and-blood heroes driven by vivid, contrasting passions.

A choice piece for Hervé Niquet, a specialist in this period and a lover of Lully's music, which he presents in a new way, taking advantage of the latest research on this repertoire by the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles.

The ensemble Le Concert Spirituel is in residence at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as part of the "cross-residency" scheme initiated by the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles.

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Dates

2025

7.30 pm

Place:

Théâtre des Champs-Elysées

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The ensemble Le Concert Spirituel is in residence at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as part of the ‘cross-residency’ scheme set up by the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. This residency is an opportunity to recreate and record operas by Marais, Charpentier, Campra and Lully from 2022 to 2025.
Le Concert Spirituel is an ensemble associated with the Opéra de Massy.
Le Concert Spirituel is subsidised by the Ministry of Culture (DRAC Île-de-France) and the City of Paris.
It would like to thank the patrons of its Endowment Fund, companies and individual patrons.
Le Concert Spirituel is the 2020 winner of the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for choral singing.
Le Concert Spirituel benefits from the support of its Grand Mécène: the Fondation Bru.
‍www.concertspirituel.com