Chapelle royale - Carpenter: David and Jonathas

Cultural

Biblical tragedy in five acts with prologue, based on a libretto by Père Bretonneau, first performed in Paris in 1688.

Although Marc-Antoine Charpentier spent most of his career without access to the Opéra, where Lully had the royal privilege, he was nevertheless able to create a lyrical masterpiece under very special conditions. In 1688, the Collège Louis Le Grand, in the Jesuit tradition of theatre, music and choreography, staged his lyrical tragedy David et Jonathas, with acts interspersed between those of the play Saül. This musical work is based on a well-known subject from the Old Testament, the deep friendship - biblical love - of David and Jonathas, son of King Saul. The latter is convinced of the treachery of the young David, who has gone over to the Philistine camp after his banishment. The inevitable confrontation between their armies leads to the suicide of the defeated Saul and the death of Jonathas in the arms of the victorious David...

The extraordinary inspiration of Charpentier's music, the dramatic force of the libretto and the intense emotion that emanates from the work made it a great success even then, as demonstrated by several revivals in other Jesuit colleges. This production is a baroque dream: to perform the sacred drama David and Jonathas in the Chapelle Royale at Versailles, with a sumptuous set by Antoine and Roland Fontaine, costumes by Christian Lacroix, baroque and dazzling staging by Marshall Pynkoski, choreography by Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg, and the admirable musical vision of Gaétan Jarry leading exceptional soloists. Here is a vibrant version of the fateful love affair between David and Jonathas...