Organization

Conductor

Gaétan Jarry

Singer

Soprano

Adèle Carlier

Sopran II

Ana Quintans

Soprano 1

Soprano 2

Ana Vieira Leite

Opéra Royal de Versailles

Others

Couperin : Leçons de Ténèbres

Versailles

France

Chapelle Royale

Couperin : Leçons de Ténèbres: Leçons de ténèbres Couperin (+2 Mas)

Public

Lessons of Darkness

Victoria, Christe resurgenti

Cantique Quatrième : Sur le Bonheur des Justes et le Malheur des Réprouvés

Approved

Presentation

In the mid-seventeenth century, the Leçons de Ténèbres became the subject of increasingly popular musical compositions. Michel Lambert was the first in France to compose a cycle in 1662, soon followed by Charpentier and Lalande. But the most famous - and the first to have been performed and recorded - are those composed by François Couperin, dated 1714.
At the end of the reign of Louis XIV, France was a land of piety, but also of Italianism in music, including religious music. The emotions composed by Couperin for his female singers are so dramatic that they sound like something out of an opera... Vocality and spirituality are artfully combined, testifying to the refinement of fine French singing practised both in the salons and theatres and in places of worship. People flocked to listen to the divine voices singing the Lessons for the days of Holy Week in Parisian convents, the faceless voices of young conventual recluses, voices from heaven... but often opera singers when theatres were closed during the period of penance before Easter! The candles were traditionally extinguished as the Office of Darkness unfolded, to end in the darkness of the night... The three extant lessons by François Couperin were written for Shrove Wednesday and represent one of the peaks of French sacred art of the early eighteenth century.
Gaétan Jarry conducts wonderful singers, Ana Quintans and Adèle Carlier for this concert, which is particularly relevant to Versailles, and which will also be recorded in our collection.
A Les Productions de l'Opéra Royal production
 Available in the Château de Versailles Spectacles collection
PROGRAMME
François Couperin (1668 – 1733)
Leçons de Ténèbres pour le Mercredi Saint
Michel Richard Delalande (1657 – 1726)
Cantique Quatrième : Sur le Bonheur des Justes et le Malheur des Réprouvés

François Couperin
Motet pour le Jour de Pâques : Victoria Christo Resugenti !

English

Couperin : Leçons de Ténèbres by Couperin, Delalande, From (2023/2023), Conductor Gaétan Jarry, Chapelle Royale, Versailles, France

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues