Monteverdi: Vespers of the Virgin – Palace of Versailles in concert in Versailles (Royal Chapel)September 22, 2024. All the practical information (prices, ticketing, seating chart) for this concert can be found on this page. Reserve your tickets now to attend this concert in Versailles!
Céline Scheen Soprano
Perrine Devillers Soprano
Zachary Wilder Tenor
Robin Tritschler Tenor
Antonin Rondepierre Tenor
Nicolas Brooymans Basse
Etienne Bazola Basse
Renaud Brès Basse
Pygmalion Choir and orchestra
Raphaël Pichon Direction
Sunday September 22, 2024, 3 p.m.
Royal Chapel
Duration: 1h40 without intermission
DVD available in the Château de Versailles Spectacles collection
“For me, Vespers are the first cinematographic work in the history of music. Monteverdi’s dramatic genius means that each psalm (and especially the first three) presents itself as a true scene of theatrical action. Monteverdi sets a scene, and allows us to feel, feel, visualize, even touch the music. He rushes into all the breaches of the Counter-Reformation. He understood that all mediums must be embraced for the text to penetrate and work with the listener. This is also what justifies such a musical arrangement because the music of Vespers is truly immersive, it unfolds in exceptional layers of sound. To attend a performance of Vespers is to experience ecstasy. »
Raphaël Pichon
Extract from the booklet, Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, 2023, Harmonia Mundi International
Text 23-24
With the Vespro della beata Vergine, Monteverdi imagined one of the first monuments of European sacred music. Meditative and theatrical at the same time, his score is conceived as a sum of prayers which does not hesitate to call upon the expression of joy, even the greatest sensuality. The baroque feeling of the music is already entirely present in these vocal pages of great virtuosity, which alternate with moments full of relief entrusted to the instruments.
Text 18-19 (direction Pichon)
With these Vespers by Monteverdi, a founding work composed in 1610, Raphaël Pichon succeeds at Versailles the man who made it a religion: John Eliot Gardiner. But it is not a coincidence, it is an affiliation: for the Monteverdi 2017 anniversary, John Eliot Gardiner asked Raphaël Pichon to come and play the Vespers in the festival he directs in Leipzig: a challenge brilliantly taken up by the young chef and his extraordinary Pygmalion ensemble! Under such auspices, Monteverdi’s choral monument, the true summit of the Baroque, will once again meet the highest standards that Pygmalion has been defending for a decade. To get to know God more than ever…
With the generous support of Aline Foriel-Destezet.
Presented by Palace of Versailles Shows (3-1054036)
