le Songe

Ambroise Thomas wrote this comic opera, which has little to do with A Midsummer Night's Dream; it includes Falstaff, Elizabeth I and Shakespeare all in a strange literary interaction. Thomas fused many of the operatic styles of his day in a skillfully written score. The piece was revived at Compiègne in 1994 to mark the opening of the Channel Tunnel. Noted director and producer Pierre Jourdan has been staging opera since 1968. In 1988, he founded the Théâtre Français de la Musique and the association Pour le Théâtre Impérial in the Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne. Every year, he directs and produces different lyric works with the mission to rediscover the French musical and lyrical repertoire from the post-baroque to today and to restore an authentic French style to the singers and the orchestras which accompany them. These productions have been triumphantly welcomed by the public and critics alike.

Prague, 1601. L'empereur Rodolphe II de Habsbourg organise une somptueuse fête à l'occasion de laquelle le célèbre astronome Tycho Brahé doit présenter sa conception du cosmos. La cour réunit les plus grands penseurs, artistes et notables de la Renaissance, au nombre desquels se trouvent le peintre Sprangler, l'alchimiste Michael Maier ou encore l'inquisiteur Roberto Bellarmin, connu pour avoir envoyé le philosophe copernicien Giordano Bruno au bûcher. …