The genre of the work, a comédie-ballet combining a dramatic plot, singing and dancing was invented by the two of them. Le Mariage forcé, their first collaboration together, will come to life on the stage at Müpa Budapest in a joint production by Le Concert Spirituel, Les Malins Plaisirs and Compagnie d'Eventail conducted by Hervé Niquet.
One might think that, in the entire history of music, it was not until the collaboration between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal that a meeting of two allied artists uniquely extraordinary in their own areas would result in the creation of joint works. And yet this had already happened centuries earlier, when Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (Molière) and Lully, also named Jean-Baptiste, commenced their joint work together. The majority of today's audience members have seen Molière's plays and heard Lully's music, but they have only quite rarely experienced their works in the way they were staged back then. This is what is happening now, thanks to the collective efforts of Le Concert Spirituel, the combined chorus and orchestra founded by Hervé Niquet in 1987, Les Malins Plaisirs, a company dedicating all of its energies to staging the works of Molière since 2009, and Compagnie d'Eventail, a Baroque dance group operating since 1985. The spiritual rector of the production is the French conductor, harpsichordist and tenor Hervé Niquet, a specialist in the French Baroque repertoire. In his youthful years, this versatile musician's artistic development took place as part of Les Arts Florissants, founded by William Christie.
Conductor: Hervé Niquet
Featuring:
Le Concert Spirituel
Les Malins Plaisirs
Compagnie d'Eventail