Dans l'Atelier des Menus Plaisirs - Exhibition

Proserpine
(libretto by Quinault, music by Lully)
Frontispiece designed by Berain

Dans l'atelier des Menus Plaisirs du Roi - spectacles, fêtes et cérémonies aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle (In the atelier of the King's Menus Plaisirs - performances, feasts and ceremonies in the 17th and 18th centuries) is the title of the current exhibition at the Archives Nationales (January 19 - April 24, 2011).

The "Menus Plaisirs du Roi" was the department of the Maison du Roi (royal household) in charge of the preparation of the events, festivities and ceremonies (including funerals) for the kings of France. They were working as event organizers and their duty ranged from planning the events to the design of the costumes, sets, architectures and their making.

The Archives Nationales are the keeper of the archives of the Maison du Roi, and have a large collection of manuscripts related to the performances and ceremonies organized at the French court during the ancien régime. Among these records, we find a set of eight volumes titled Recueils de décoration de théâtre et de pompes funèbres. It is a collection of drawings from various times and events gathered by the Menus Plaisirs, or, to be more precise, by Antoine Angélique Levesque (1709-1767), "Garde général des magasins des Menus Plaisirs du Roi" i.e. responsible of the place where the costumes and decorations were made and stored.

The Menus Plaisirs archives have recently been inventoried, identified and classified and the present exhibition is a way to value the important work done.

Amadis de Gaule (1699), project by Jean Bérain
libretto by Antoine Houdar de la Motte - music by André Cardinal Destouches

A huge and most interesting 256-pages catalogue was published on the occasion :
Dans l'atelier des Menus Plaisirs du Roi - spectacles, fêtes et cérémonies aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle.
by Jérôme de la Gorce et Pierre Jugie
ISBN : 978-2-85495-439-5
Archives Nationales, Paris, 2010
Editions Artlys, Versailles 2010
€ 35

But that's not all : more interesting, especially to those of my foreign readers who cannot attend the exhibition or read the catalogue, the archives Nationales have put the whole series of books compiled by Antoine Angélique Levesque on their site ARCHIM :

Recueils de décorations de théâtre
recueillies par Monsieur Levesque,
garde général des magasins des Menus Plaisirs
de la Chambre du roy, 1752

Enjoy !

Revival of Lully's 'Atys'

Now, it's sure : we shall have a revival of Atys with the 'historical' 1987 staging by Jean-Marie Villégier !
It will be performed by William Christie and LAF, and the opera will be given in Paris (salle Favart), Caen, Bordeaux, Versailles and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music...
And that's not all : a DVD is planned.
All this was made possible thanks to Ronald P. Stanton who sponsored the production.

Dardanus - Opéra de Lille

Jean-Philippe RAMEAU - DARDANUS
October, 16, 18, 20, 22,24, 2009
Opéra de Lille

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Le Concert d'Astrée
Emmanuelle Haïm

Claude Buchvald, Staging
Alexandre de Dardel, Stage decoration
Daniel Larrieu, Choreography


Anders J. Dahlin, Dardanus
Ingrid Perruche, Iphise
Andrew Foster-Williams, Isménor
François Lis, Teucer
Robert Gleadow, Anténor

Opéra de Lille
Le Concert d'Astrée


Other Performances :

Théâtre de Caen : November 5 & 7, 2009
Opéra de Dijon : November 18 & 20, 2009

Old Opera Productions Revived

Platée staged by Laurent Pelly

- Jean-Philippe RAMEAU, Platée - Les Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski - staging, Laurent Pelly
Opéra de Paris December 02-30, 2009.
Both Paul Agnew and Jean-Paul Fouchécourt will be Platée, so you can make your choice or, better, buy two tickets and enjoy both of them.
Opéra de Paris

- Jean-Baptiste LULLY, Atys, Les Arts Florissants/William Christie, in the mythical 1987 production staged by Jean-Marie Villégier - 2011 (not sure, yet - the project is still under discussion).

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The revival of old famous productions seems to be the new trend in the operatic wold. La Monnaie in Brussels recently revived Herbert Wernicke's staging of La Calisto.

Cavalli - YBOP

The Yale Baroque Opera Project (YBOP) announced a conference entitled From Page to Stage : Manuscript-Edition-Production, Readying Francesco Cavalli's Operas for the Stage, which will take place at Yale University, Whitney Humanities Center from 30 April to 2 May 2009.
The conference, which will feature musicologists, textual scholars, conductors, directors, stage designers, and theorists of drama, will coincide with a production of Cavalli's most popular opera, Giasone, by YBOP.
Yale Baroque Opera Project

Cavalli - Ercole Amante

Ercole... (sigh...)

Ercole Amante staged by David Alden,
or how to turn a drama into a buffoonery
Amsterdam, January 2009

It's obvious the contemporary stage directors feel ill at ease when it comes to staging ancient operas. If they can read the libretto and have a brain, it's the only way I can explain their insistence in turning all the dramas into lousy comedies. As Bergson theorised it, laughter is most of the time a sign of embarrassment rather than of fun.

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Ercole Amante was commissionned by Mazarin to celebrate the mariage of Louis XIV and Maria Teresa of Austria, and was first performed on February 7, 1662, in the new salle des Machines built in the Tuileries. The ballet, Hercule amoureux, performed between the acts to please the French public, was Lully's first great success.

On a Schizophrenic Production

A post inspired by two critics of the performances of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine (January 2009) performed by Jean-Christophe Spinosi & Ensemble Mattheus, and staged by Oleg Kulik, a contemporary artist .

On the one hand, Art Actuel, a magazine dedicated to contemporary art :
We are honoured to have attended, at the Châtelet theatre, the performance of the Vespro della Beata Virgine (sic !), by Claudio Monteverdi, with visual concept, staging, lightshow and costumes designed by our friend Oleg Kulik who managed to turn the musical and choral work of the Italian master into a wonderful "experience on the space liturgy".

On the other hand, Classica Répertoire, a magazine dedicated to classical music :
The Châtelet had turned into a 80's nightclub... The stellar liturgy Oleg Kulik wanted for the Vespro aimed at being scandalous, it was only old fashioned with its raelian costumes and its laser ray. Total show of ridiculing Spinosi & ali.

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The art critic went to the Châtelet to enjoy Kulik's show, probably not knowing who Monteverdi is and not caring about him, and the musical critic went there to enjoy Monteverdi's music, surely ignoring who Kulik is and not giving a damn about conceptual art experiments.

On an artistical point of view, the description of the staging sounded appealing. It included the use of huge mirrors reflecting the public on the stage and the orchestra in the theatre, and the projection of pictures and colours on the ceiling and walls to build up a cathedral of sounds and colours.
On a musical point of view, the mention that the conducter would face the public, and the orchestra would stay on stage behind him, didn't seem very clever, even if the conductor was supposed to see the orchestra in a mirror placed behind the public. Still on the musical side, there was the killing detail : Kulik had decided to add extra sounds, like alarms, horns and various noises, in order to create the illusion of being in an open space in the middle of the city. "A stroke of genius !", exclaimed the contemporary art fan. "A pain in the neck", sighted the Monteverdi fan. Horns in the Vespro, that's great only when you don't care about Monteverdi's music.

Kulik did what most of the stage directors do nowadays : he used the concert to promote his own work and ideas.
After reading the excellent critic (in French) here. It seems to me clear that Kulik commited a double sacrilege : a musical one, for ruining Monteverdi's music with with the extra noises, and a religious one, by turning that very high and sacred moment of the christian liturgy into a dionysian ritual.

I see the ancient music as a peaceful and preserved continent, and I'm always sorry when the hords of contemporary art fighters bring to it their violence and destruction. Kulik staging Monteverdi, it's Alaric and the Goths invading Rome.