L'étoile Du Berger

Merveilleux Labrit, vif, intelligent, toujours en mouvement. C'est par excellence le chien de conduite du troupeau. Le Patou, lui, c'est la force tranquille, l'irremplaçable gardien, capable de faire face à l'ours, comme au loup. À travers l'histoire et la vie de ces chiens du berger, Jacques Coly brosse le portrait d'une communauté pastorale pyrénéenne, étonnamment vivante. …

Michel Plasson is one of the most important French conductors from the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. He is well known for his interpretations of French opera, particularly those of Gounod and Massenet. He has also received praise for his work in the choral music of Duruflé and Fauré, and the orchestral works of Magnard, Ravel, and other French composers.

La Terre s'arrêtera-t-elle de tourner ? Pourquoi le bâillement est-il contagieux ? Comment font les poissons pour dormir ? Quelle est l'origine de l'expression " O. K. " ? Combien pèse un nuage ? Voici les vraies réponses, souvent déconcertantes, insolites, drôles, mais toujours scientifiquement ou historiquement indiscutables, aux questions que tout le monde se pose sans avoir jamais osé le dire. Un livre tout à la fois sérieux et ludique qui vous permettra de satisfaire vos curiosités jusqu'aux plus saugrenues. …

There are two different short operas (from 1754 and 1757) by Rameau with the title Anacréon. Both are one-act actes de ballet; this one was actually used as the third entrée of Rameau's opéra-ballet Les surprises de l'Amour when it was revived the same year. Both works have as their subject the Greek poet, Anacreon. The 1757 one - which was first performed at the Paris Opéra in May of that year and has a libretto by Pierre-Joseph Justin Bernard - has an only marginally less slight ‘plot’ than the earlier Anacréon. It follows an argument as to the relative merits of love and wine. That’s resolved in Anacreon’s favour by L’Amour; in fact, he believes the two are not incompatible.

La Naissance d'Osiris (Osiris birth) was performed in 1754 at the birth of Louis XVI in Fontainebleau. Rameau composed the one-act ballet based on a libretto by Louis de Cahusac, who has already provided the libretto for numerous other works by Rameau (Zoroastre, Anacréon, Les Fêtes de l'hymen et de l'Amour …). The piece depicts the birth of the goddess Osiris and symbolizes the birth of the grandson of Louis XV.