Poppea, a courtesan with an insatiable thirst for power, weaves her destiny with formidable grace. Mistress of the Emperor Nero, she frees herself from all restraints, sweeping aside past loves, orchestrating the suicide of the philosopher Seneca and precipitating the fall of the Empress Octavia. Her coronation and the coveted union with Nero could be seen as nothing more than a manifesto of amorality. However, under Monteverdi's majestic inspiration and Stephane Fuget's fervent direction, this ascension is transformed into an intoxicating ode to all-powerful desire, revealing the terrifying beauty of unrestrained ambition!

Although the music of Robert de Visee has transcended the ages, many scholars are still trying to unravel the mysteries surrounding the composer's life. Among them, Thibaut Roussel - accompanied by Perrine Devillers, Mathilde Vialle and Myriam Rignol - delights hearts with his own interpretation of the rich music of the greatest theorbist of the 17th century. Interwoven with pieces by contemporary composers, Robert de Visee's exquisite arias transport the listener to the pomp and splendour of the evenings at the court of Louis XIV.

The sorceress Armide, infatuated with the valiant knight Roland, but desperate for Roland to return her love, tries at all costs to lure him into her arms. At the same time, the courageous Herminie tries to protect Tancrede, Roland's companion, from the dangers that threaten him. Published in 1704, Suite d'Armide ou Jerusalem delivree is as rare as it is unique: in the handwriting of the Regent Philippe d'Orleans, it's composition testifies to a certain talent and a refined ear. Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon and Cappella Mediterranea brilliantly restore the little-known genius of the sovereign.

On the one hand, the despair of humanity facing the irrevocable fading of the seasons, on the other, the sublime eternity of nature's renewal... These are the two worlds developed by Thierry Malandain in Les Saisons, a ballet interweaving The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi and The Four Seasons of the Year by Giovanni Antonio Guido. The Orchestre de l'Opera Royal de Versailles, under the direction of Stefan Plewniak, delivers a nuanced interpretation of these well-known arias, freshly accompanying the dancers of Malandain Ballet Biarritz.

A pupil of the famous Nicolas Lebegue, Nicolas de Grigny quickly dazzled his peers with the daring complexity of his writing. His compositions, veritable Baroque gems, captivated even Johann Sebastian Bach, who meticulously copied his entire organ book. The singular work of the former organist of Reims Cathedral is restored in all it's splendour by Michel Bouvard and Francois Espinasse on the keyboards of the Great Organ of the Chapelle Royale.

Don Giovanni was commissioned by the Prague Opera immediately after the success of The Marriage of Figaro: Mozart and Da Ponte chose a subject that had just triumphed a few weeks earlier in Venice, Giuseppe Gazzaniga's Don Giovanni. Taking up the theme of The Deceiver of Seville, which had already been very popular in the theatre since the mid-seventeenth century, Da Ponte focused his work on the libertine character of Don Juan, no doubt inspired by his famous friend Casanova. The result is dazzling, never leaving the spectator the slightest respite between murders, scenes of seduction, cunning and fantastic apparitions: here is a grand spectacle served by extraordinary music, an absolute masterpiece, to which Prague gave an exceptional triumph. Marshall Pynkoski takes the characters here in a dramatic whirlwind dressed in Christian Lacroix's fantasies: Robert Gleadow finally takes on the role of Don Giovanni; and Gaetan Jarry makes the Orchestre de l'Opera Royal shine.

The young Louis XIII first came to Versailles in 1607, accompanying his father Henri IV on a hunting expedition. In 1623, he decided to have a hunting lodge built where he could spend the night: the most beautiful palace in the world was in the making... And what if, before entering his new home, the King had wanted it to be given a special lustre by a religious consecration? Jean-Baptiste Nicolas brings together the great Messe a double choeur by Forme, principal composer of La Chapelle Royale for Henri IV and then Louis XIII, Motets by Bouzignac and Du Caurroy, and a garland of fanfares where the trumpets compete in splendour with the soloists, the children of the Maitrise du CRR de Paris, the Choeur de l'Opera Royal and the Consort Musica Vera: jubilant!

In 1607, Claudio Monteverdi premiered his Orfeo for the Carnival opening in the Court Theatre of Duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua. For the first time in the history of music, real characters are brought to life with deeply moving human feelings: with this exceptional dramatic power, modern opera is born. Stephane Fuget, a great specialist in this repertoire and it's historical instrumentalisation, after Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, has brought together some of the finest vocal and instrumental virtuosos for this new Orfeo: he has entrusted the eponymous role to the splendid and sensitive Julian Pregardien, to sing all the magnificence of the first true hero in the history of opera.

Mozart was 22 when he travelled to Paris in 1778, accompanied by his mother. Although he did not achieve the success he had hoped for, his visit to Paris was a major turning point in his personal life and artistic development. Marked by the disillusionment that led him to despise the Parisian public and by the tragedy of losing his mother, his sonatas for pianoforte are tinged with an intense gravity, mirroring the inner turmoil experienced by the young prodigy. At the same time, the castrato Albanese charmed the capital with his Romances, which were popular with the public and from which Mozart drew some of his inspiration. Arnaud de Pasquale, at the keyboard of a superb replica of a 1749 Silbermann pianoforte, takes us back to the Paris of the 1770s, where musical practice was nothing but effervescent, and invites us, with grace and sensitivity, into the tormented intimacy of the genius.

Armide was Lully and Quinault's last tragedie lyrique: undoubtedly Quinault's finest dramatic achievement, and the culmination of the tragedie en musique conceived by Lully, who died the year after it's creation. Never has language appeared so beautiful and tragic in Lully's music, and the drama of this Christian knight falling in love with the sorceress who refuses to kill him was so deeply felt that it remained on stage for a century! Here, Vincent Dumestre passionately conducts Lully's last masterpiece, whose eponymous character, played by the immense Stephanie D'Oustrac, never ceases to bewitch us.

Les Fetes grecques et romaines, Colin de Blamont's first opera, was a resounding success from the moment it premiered in 1723. A synthesis between the nobility of the tragedie lyrique created by Lully and the more playful tone, with it's choreographed divertissements, of the opera-ballet created by Campra, it's libretto brings to life the best-known festivals of ancient History. The eloquent Alcibiades distinguishes himself at the Olympic Games, Mark Antony and Cleopatra celebrate the intoxicating Bacchanalia, and the poet Tibullus passionately courts his beloved Delia at the Saturnalia... Valentin Tournet helps us rediscover this masterpiece of the Age of Enlightenment, which for far too long has been overshadowed by it's famous contemporaries.

No one has surpassed Marais: only one has equalled him, and that is the famous Forqueray: with these words, in 1752, a contemporary praised one of the last great virtuosos of the viola da gamba. Known for his formidably difficult and technical musical style, Forqueray's world is nonetheless immensely rich: through the works of the father Antoine, his son Jean-Baptiste and his nephew Nicolas-Gilles, an august lineage emerges whose grace and genius never ceased to inspire. At times proud, even bellicose, at other times deeply tender, the viol pieces by this Forqueray family plunge us into a flight of expressions of passions whose vivacity is equalled only by their intensity. Myriam Rignol, as a distant granddaughter, accompanied by her exquisite Timbres, delivers in this complete work a powerful homage to these 18th-century chamber music icons who, in their image, could never be anything other than virtuoso.

Le Retour des Dieux sur la Terre and Le Caprice d'erato are part of the tradition inherited from Louis XIV of occasional pieces that served to illustrate major events at Court: Composed four years apart, the first to celebrate the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska in 1725 and the second for the birth of their first son in 1729, these two divertissements are veritable little concert operas in which splendid grand narratives, triumphal overtures, surprising dances, solemn choruses and grandiose finales follow one another. Alexis Kossenko invites us here to savour the delights of these musical evenings, which gradually spread to all the salons of the 18th century, and where everything seems to invite us to celebrate!

Le Carnaval du Parnasse, Mondonville's heroic ballet, was a dazzling triumph at its premiere in 1749, eclipsing Rameau's Zoroastre, which premiered the same year. Dedicated to the Marquise de Pompadour, muse of the arts and the omnipotent favorite of the King, this whimsical carnival is nothing short of a delicious marivaudage: on Mount Parnassus, Apollo and his Muses indulge in feasts of the senses and entertainments of the heart… Mondonville displays prodigious virtuosity throughout, depicting unheard-of orchestral colors and imagining unbridled dances and vast ceremonial choruses comparable to those in his great motets. Alexis Kossenko and his ensemble Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie, joined by the eminent vocal power of the Chœur de Chambre de Namur, have made an exceptional rediscovery of this masterful reincarnation of the splendors of the Court of Louis XV, then at its apogee.

Of all the performances of the Te Deum conducted during Lully's lifetime, history retains only the last, which sealed the composer's death in 1686: it was while beating time that, carried away by his zeal, he pierced his foot with the end of his cane... Ten years earlier, Lully composed this considerable score, for the christening of his own son, thus establishing an "official" genre for a century. Also intended to celebrate the great events of the reign, the grand motet Exaudiat Te Dominus is a dazzling glorification of the King, whose arms God has come to bear. Stephane Fuget, with his ensemble Les epopees, brings to a close this collection devoted to Lully's sumptuous Grands Motets, accompanied by the Pages et Chantres of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles: To the Glory of God and the King!

At the end of the world, on the mythical island of Ogygia, while Neptune unleashes a storm, the inconsolable Calypso tries to seduce a handsome young castaway named Telemachus… Will Ulysses' son respond to the nymph's dangerous charms? Will he manage, as a humble mortal in the scheme of the gods, to escape the island where his father was once a prisoner ? A quintessential Homeric epic, Télémaque & Calypso is a flamboyant tribute to Destouches' own dramatic efficiency, and his particular attention to "lively speech" and natural declamation. After Sémiramis, Sylvain Sartre continues his brilliant journey through the masterpieces of the adventurous composer and musketeer, which are now finaly revealed.

1694: the first French opera composed by a woman is premiered at the Academie royale de musique. The fateful destiny of the Greek lovers, driven to blindness and horror by the gods: Cephalus will kill Procris, whom he believes to be unfaithful, and himself… A virtuoso harpsichordist much appreciated by Louis XIV, Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre chose to become a composer at a time when such freedom was virtually unheard of for a woman. Her gamble paid off, with six performances and the admiration of posterity: this flamboyant work has finally been brought back to the public by Reinoud van Mechelen.

In 1731, at the height of his London fame, Handel created his 28th opera seria: a vocal pyrotechnic about the rivalry, in love and war, between Alexander the Great and the Indian King Porus. Rage and spite, love and glory drive the extraordinary arias that Handel entrusted to two of his favourite singers: the castrato star Senesino for the title role, and the soprano Anna Maria Strada del Pò as the treacherous Cleofide. It was a sign of the work's success and the prestige of its cast. Poro was performed twenty times in 1731, a virtually exceptional figure. The young tenor Marco Angioloni - singing the role of Alexander - brings this opera back to life with his Ensemble Il Groviglio, and a magnificent cast that would have delighted Handel!

Would you happen to know Mademoiselle Duval, the composer of a single opera, Les Genies, performed nine times in 1736, which was a great success and has never been performed again since its premiere at the Academie Royale de Musique in Paris? A singer and composer, Mademoiselle Duval was the second woman to create an opera there, following in the footsteps of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. Although her life remains a mystery, this accomplished harpsichordist, who dazzled audiences by playing continuo at the premiere of Les Genies, wrote a work of entertainment contemporary with Les Indes Galantes, in which each act unfolds a new love story centred on the Geniuses of Water (Les Nymphes), Air (Les Sylphes), Earth (Les Gnomes) and Fire (Les Salamandres). It's a little marvel that Camille Delaforge's curiosity has finally brought us, passionately conducting this rarity of the French repertoire with absolute joy!

When Atys was first performed before the court in 1676, Lully was at the peak of his triumph: his tragedie lyrique became "the King's opera," so highly did the monarch esteem it's quality. The chords unfold to embody human passions and divine wills, guiding the young Atys's romantic impulses and the wounded fury of the goddess Cybele. With Atys, Lully establishes love as the central thread of the drama, weaving around this sovereign passion a tale where the impulses of the heart, celestial jealousies, and human flaws intertwine to seal the fate of the heroes. Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon conducts this new version with exquisite finesse, elevating Lully's music to carry souls into an enchanting dream.

This is Atys, the King's Opera, Lully’s masterpiece, premièred in 1676 before the court. A legendary work in the rediscovery of Grand-Siècle operas, Atys is a paragon of emerging lyric art: it places love at the centre of the plot, and its hero – for the first time in Lully's work – dies on stage, provoking a sumptuous lamentation that could wring tears from the most hardened heart. Lully’s incredible music magnifies Philippe Quinault’s splendid tragic text, creating their first joint masterpiece, an Atys adored by the Sun King. Christophe Rousset offers his vision of a piece that has fascinated him for the past three decades, lending it the sensual colour imbued by the Reinoud Van Mechelen's performance, a miraculous Atys…

Vivaldi was already a renowned opera composer in Venice and throughout Italy, but he gained exceptional notoriety throughout Europe when the concerti constituting his Quattro Stagioni were published in Amsterdam. These theme concertos, which embraced the imagination of Arcimboldo, gained top billing in private and public concerts. But their composition for solo violin has impressive virtuosity and expression: Stefan Plewniak becomes both unchained and sensual in them, not giving the Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal any opportunity for respite in intensely sounding out these seasons that are so emblematic of Baroque Europe!

How to take the place of the empress of Rome? Poppaea, a courtesan and mistress of Emperor Nero, removes every obstacle that stands between her and the throne: she leaves her lover, Otho, the philosopher Seneca commits suicide, Empress Octavia is banished, and finally she achieves her goal, marrying Nero. Through Monteverdi’s music, this triumph of immorality is elevated into a hymn to the power of desire. Monteverdi’s last opera is also the first masterpiece of the genre, extraordinarily and enduringly modern. Here, it is filmed at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, with a young and committed cast, guided through a mafia-baroque world by director Ted Huffman and the sensational Leonardo García Alarcón!

When one of the most illustrious sopranists of our time becomes a conductor, he chooses nothing less than Messiah! Franco Fagioli paints a fresco of Handel's masterpiece with a Latin exaltation, drawing this great English Baroque oratorio in the colours of the Mediterranean, together with the famous Barcelona choir and their Caravaggesque chiaroscuro, which gives the work a shimmer of moiré. The Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal provides the backdrop for the splendours revealed by the soloists, who take us on a journey of joy and sorrow through the life and Passion of Christ: "Behold, I tell you a Mystery … "

Venus; goddess of sensuality and great orchestrator of pleasures; pulls the strings of opera characters as if they were puppets in the land of Tendre. With great delectation; Marie Perbost invokes the goddess and the heroines of French opera from the century of Louis XV to embody all the victims of passions unleashed by Aphrodite. There are masterpieces and discoveries here; from the satirical mockery of Madness in Rameau’s Platée to the virtuosic pages of Mondonville in Les Fêtes de Paphos. By turns pastoral and piquant; tender and burning; the divine Marie Perbost; supported by Gaétan Jarry; embraces all the music of love under Louis XV. A medley of jesting and fleeting romances; grace and libertinism; experience the delirium of the senses titillated by Eros and Cupid!