Rameau, maître à danser

Les Arts Florissants open their 2017/2018 season with an exceptional tour to South Korea. The programme to be presented is Rameau, maître à danser, a performance associating two “actes de ballet” by Jean-Philippe Rameau, La Naissance d’Osiris and Daphnis et Églé. These intimate and rarely given works were composed for the grand spectacles dansed at the Court. Based on a libretto by Cahuzac, La Naissance d’Osiris was commissioned to celebrate the birth of the Duke of Berry, the future Louis XVI; Rameau went on to use certain passages in his “tragédie lyrique” Zoroastre. Although it was originally destined to liven up the hunting parties at Fontainebleau, Daphnis et Églé is also proof – underneath its frivolity – of Rameau’s artistic genius.

Thanks to a semi staging which captures the spirit of the fairground theatre, this spectacle available on DVD (Alpha Editions) has already achieved an enormous public and critical success when it was first performed in France in 2014.

This revival is given in memory of Françoise Denieau, choreographer of this production.

Production of the théâtre de Caen, in coproduction with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
Associate coproducer : Les Arts Florissants (with the support of The Selz Foundation)
Executive producer of the rerun : Les Arts Florissants