Vocal - Day & Night

"In the French “Grand Siècle”, the century of Lully, Molière and Racine, “unhappy love” was widespread - both among the Olympic deities and in the lovely fields of Arcadia. Following the fashion of antiquity and inspired by “L'Astrée”, the great novel of the time, Sébastien Le Camus, Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre and Michel Lambert, as well as his son-in-law Jean-Baptiste Lully, composed “courtly” and “serious arias” that conjure up unfaithful nymphs and amorous shepherds.

These virtuoso arias, which were often performed in the Parisian salons, delighted a society in search of refined pleasures and provide a dazzling testimony to French song in the “Grand Siècle”. Given the turbulent life at the court of the “Roi soleil”, it should hardly come as a surprise that the texts also address the longing for the peace of the night, the silence and the shadows of the woods. The love-drunk desires of absolutist France are sung by soprano Claire Lefilliâtre, accompanied by Les Epopées. The ensemble, a “Compagnie lyrique” founded by Stéphane Fuget in 2018, has quickly conquered a very special place in the scene of historically-informed performance practice and celebrates its Innsbruck debut with this concert."