Ballet Royal de la Nuit - 11+12 November 2017

The recreation of the young Louis XIV Sun King’s Grand Divertissement created in 1653, interpreted by l'Ensemble Correspondance led by Sébastien Daucé.

In 1653, in the Kingdom of France, Mazarin decided to organise and oversee the creation of an extravagant spectacle known as a Court Ballet. Behind this impressive and seemingly festive project, he had a primarily political objective, namely to secure the power of the young king Louis XIV.
To achieve this, he called upon the talents of the greatest artists of the Court, Isaac de Benserade for the libretto, Michel Lambert and Jean de Cambefort for the music.

As the four phases progress, a series of entrées unfurl successively featuring thieves, shepherds, crooks, beggars, princes, allegories of games and pleasures, the Parcae, Sadness, and the Graces. This truly whimsical litany draws its unity from the principal subject of the ballet: each entrée illustrates in its own way the fantastic and sometimes unreal world that is Night. At the approach of dawn, Aurora appears and heralds a new light of unparalleled brightness: it is the Sun, danced by Louis XIV. Victorious over darkness, the young king dances, surrounded by the princes who have rallied to his cause.

A CD of the music has been released by Harmonia Mundi and it has received numerous commendations from the press: 4 stars in Télérama, Choc de la Musique, and the Gramophone Award…

This stage version will provide an opportunity to perform the entire ballet score which contains approximately thirty minutes more music than the CD recording.

A coproduction CLC - Théâtre de Caen in association with France 3