Histoires Sacrées - Charpentier - Sébastien Daucé

Caroline Weynants Judith

Lucile Richardot Madeleine

Judith Fa Cécile

Ensemble Correspondances

Sébastien Daucé Conductor

Vincent Huguet Semi-staging

Aurélie Maestre Scenography

Bertrand Couderc Lights

Clémence Pernoud Costumes

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)

Judith ou Béthulie libérée

Cécile Vierge et Martyr

Magdalena Lugens

Marc-Antoine Charpentier is undoubtedly the 17th-century French composer with whom contemporary listeners find the most affinity - his direct and moving style speaks to us across the centuries. While it was difficult for him to develop his talents on the opera stage, he had wonderful opportunities to exercise his dramatic skills in the Histoires Sacrées, which he set to music on the model of Italian oratorios. The heroines of these Christian dramas are Judith (victorious over Holofernes) and Cecile (virgin and martyr): caught up in biblical drama they brilliantly confront injustice! As for the sinner Magdalene, she owes her redemption to her love for Christ: one of the most astonishing ambiguities of Christian tradition...

With magnificent inventiveness, these "sacred operas" (like Handel's Oratorios) are set with musical beauties, poignant solos and magnificent choirs, deployed by  Sébastien Daucé with director Vincent Huguet: for they are magnificently written to be acted as well as sung. Supported by a set and costumes that suggest distant biblical lands, this " staging " allows us to rediscover a reflection of the " sacred theatre " carried high by the Jesuits: a first in Louis XIV’s Chapel!