Organization

Singer

Tenor

Pierre Derhet

Richard Cœur de Lion

Baritone

Jean-Gabriel Saint-Martin

Urbain

François Pardailhé

Guillot

Rémy Mathieu

Blondel

Soprano

Melody Louledjian

Laurette

Bass-baritone

Geoffroy Buffière

Williams

Florestan

Stage director

Marshall Pynkoski

Conductor

Hervé Niquet

Lighting designer

Hervé Gary

Costume designer

Camille Assaf

Set designer

Antoine Fontaine

Choreographer

Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg

Mathurin

Charles

Cécile Achille

Madame Mathurin

Marie Perbost

Marguerite

Virginie Lefèvre

Béatrix

Laura Jarrell

Colette

Charles Barbier

Sénéchal

Opéra Royal de Versailles

Orchestra

Concert Spirituel

Orchestra of the Royal Opera of Versailles

French

Richard Coeur de Lion -  (Richard the Lionheart)

Versailles

France

Opéra Royal

Château de Versailles

Chapelle royale

Richard Coeur de Lion Grétry

Public

Richard the Lionheart

English

Approved

Immerse yourself in the sets of the comic opera "Richard Cœur de Lion" by Grétry thanks to the explanations of Antoine Fontaine, in charge of their design. Did you miss it? He returns ! After a triumphant success at the Royal Opera of the Palace of Versailles in 2019 for the celebration of its 250th anniversary, the opera "Richard Coeur de Lion" by Grétry will once again be on display at this emblematic venue from Thursday 11 to Sunday. November 14, 2021.

An imprisoned King, his knights who want to free him and sing their loyalty to him, a famous air “Ô Richard, Ô mon Roi” sung in the Royal Opera by the Gardes du Corps of Louis XVI during their banquet on October 1, 1789, to greet Marie-Antoinette and the King, unleashing vengeance and bringing the crowd to Versailles, which forced the royal family to leave the castle on October 6, never to return… It was the end of Versailles and its Royal Opera. To celebrate its 250th anniversary, here is the return to the stage of the famous Richard Cœur de Lion (1784) by Grétry, the most famous 18th century French comic opera in Europe for a century… disappeared from the stages for decades!

Hervé Niquet and Marshall Pynkoski are working on this doubly historic task. This show voluntarily places the action under the reign of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, with whom the era easily identified the heroes of Grétry's opera: he was, moreover, a regular at the Opéra Royal since the performance of Cephalus and Procris in 1773. The sets reproduce the style of the painted canvases and frames typical of the construction of the Royal Opera, the costumes are those of pre-revolutionary France (and no longer of the Middle Ages mentioned at the creation), the staging giving to hear the rich text of Sedaine quickly become famous. 

If Grétry was Marie-Antoinette's most appreciated composer, his "Richard" is both the culmination of a career, the announcement of an artistic style that romanticism will seize, but also the powerful historical mark of a dying era. Here is the opportunity to bring opera back into the great history of Versailles and France. And here is also the first complete production of the Royal Opera of Versailles since 1789!

Richard the Lionheart by Grétry, From (2021/2021), Directed by Marshall Pynkoski,, Conductor Hervé Niquet, Opéra Royal, Versailles, France

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

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Ensemble

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