L'année de L'éveil

Poised at the convergence of 18th-century French and Italian schools, Leclair and Senaillé were the French Paganinis of their day. Technically challenging yet full of poetry, rhythmically varied and always dance-like, their sonatas find two fervent advocates in Théotime Langlois de Swarte and William Christie. Transcending generational differences, the “venerated elder statesman of early music” (Opera News) and the youthful violin prodigy join forces to help us rediscover these still unjustly neglected pages.

Written at the request of Louis XIV in honour of his sisterin- law, Henrietta of England, Le Ballet royal de la naissance de Vénus was performed in 1665 with Henrietta herself as the goddess of love and youth. In twelve entrées, this grandiose spectacle, combining dancing, music and poetry, served the power of the king, while attesting to the magnificence of his court. Musically very inventive, it shows the culmination of the ballet genre, on which Lully was to draw in creating the tragédie en musique. To complete the programme, excerpts from Les Amours déguisés (Armida’s famous lament “Ah! Rinaldo, e dove sei?”), Psyché, Le Bourgeois gentil homme and Le Carnaval - from the latter, a piece recycled from Les Noces de village, a burlesque aria sung by the boastful village schoolmaster Barbacola, a basso buffo role that Lully wrote for himself.

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.

Une collection de trois livres précieusement gardés par les membres de la grande bibliothèque de l'École de magie et de sorcellerie de Poudlard : Les Animaux fantastiques, l'œuvre magistrale de Norbert Dragonneau dédiée aux créatures magiques ; Le Quidditch à travers les âges, une historique complète du jeu et de ses règles ; et Les Contes de Beedle le Barde…

Émergeant de la défaite catastrophique de la France en 1940, tel un phénix en lambeaux et plutôt sinistre, l'État français - plus connu dans l'histoire sous le nom de "France de Vichy" ou de "Régime de Vichy", du nom de sa capitale thermale - apparaît dans l'histoire comme une création unique et étrange des conquêtes européennes du führer allemand Adolf Hitler. …