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The 2024-2025 musical season

The Palace of Versailles is hosting numerous operas, concerts, gala evenings and ballets in some of its exceptional spaces, including the Royal Opera and the Royal Chapel. Check out the programme for the 2024–2025 music season at Versailles.

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Concert

Sunday March 30th 2025

Bach: Six Brandenburg concertos

In 1721, Bach dedicated a cycle of six concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg, uncle of the King of Prussia. A veritable "art of the concerto" in the manner of Bach, these "six concerts à plusieurs instruments" are of rare virtuosity, involving not only the strings but also various soloists such as the harpsichord and trumpet, in a blend of styles where the Italian concerto dominates, but with an extraordinary science of German-style contrapuntal interweaving, and magnificent French influences.

Opera in concert version

Tuesday April 29th 2025

Handel : Alcina

London 1735: Handel was at the height of his fame, but his Royal Academy of Music was a colossus with feet of clay, given the stiff competition from the Opera de la Noblesse. It was therefore necessary to present a new masterpiece with a charismatic character. In 1733, Handel had triumphed with Orlando, based on Ariosto's epic poem, and for this new opus he drew on the same vein, using the libretto of L'Isola d'Alcina, the first opera seria by Riccardo Broschi (Farinelli's brother) created in Rome in 1728.

Concert

Monday May 5th 2025 - Crusades Room

Marie Lys Recital : Cantates of Haendel

The young soprano from Lausanne, Marie Lys, has won over audiences in just a few years, making her warm timbre and virtuosity her most winning assets. Here she is, carrying the flame of that most ebullient of Baroque composers, Georg Friedrich Handel. In these cantatas, the voice is brought to incandescence by the signer’s sensuality and passion. Marie Lys will perform a recital (recorded on CD) of these splendid works by her beloved Handel, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Opéra Royal, conducted by Gaétan Jarry.

Theatre

Thuesday May 13th and Wednesday May 14th 2025

Fabrice Luchini : La Fontaine et le confinement

“During the year of lockdown, I worked (modestly) on three great authors: Jean de la Fontaine, Blaise Pascal and Charles Baudelaire. I was so fascinated by them that I decided to create a show, La Fontaine et le Confinement (The Fountain and Lockdown)." Fabrice Luchini. Relating to current events, the texts are introduced by anecdotes of Luchini’s experiences during lockdown.

Concert

Thursday May 15th 2025

The Prodigies of Romanticism

After winning First Prize at the Concours International Long-Thibaud in 2022, and setting the stage on fire at the Opéra Royal the previous season in Beethoven's L'Empereur, young Korean Hyuk Lee tackles the most romantic of piano concertos! The following year, Ukrainian violinist Bohdan Luts took all the laurels at the Long-Thibaud Competition (First Grand Prize, Press Prize, Audience Prize and Orchestra Prize) at just eighteen years of age! He will perform one of the greatest violin concertos in the repertoire, accompanied by the brilliant Victor Jacob at the helm of the Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal!

Operas staged version

From Friday May 16th to Sunday May 18th 2025 - Royal Chapel

Charpentier: David and Jonathas

This production is a Baroque dream: to perform the sacred drama David and Jonathas in the Chapelle Royale at Versailles, with a sumptuous set by Antoine and Roland Fontaine, costumes by Christian Lacroix, dazzling Baroque staging by Marshall Pynkoski, choreography by Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg and the exquisite musical vision of Gaétan Jarry leading exceptional soloists. This is a stirring version of the powerful, fateful love story of David and Jonathas.

Opera in concert version

Thursday May 22nd 2025

Rameau : Les Fêtes de Ramire

Voltaire et Rameau avaient déjà collaboré pour La Princesse de Navarre, créée au début de l’année 1745. La cour leur demande de remanier cette fastueuse comédie-ballet pour en faire un ballet en un acte, mais les deux hommes n’ont pas le temps – ils préparent Le Temple de la Gloire – et confient la finalisation de l’adaptation à Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Le 22 décembre 1745, la cour découvre ainsi une œuvre mettant en scène une princesse espagnole captive à qui l’un de ses geôliers offre de superbes divertissements. Une œuvre à laquelle ont collaboré trois des plus brillants esprits du XVIIIe siècle.

Concert

Friday May 23rd 2025 - Royal Chapel

Clérambault : Te Deum - Story of the Adulterous Woman

This large-scale Te Deum magnifies the royal glory, in the tradition of Lully and Lalande. It is associated here with the famous Missa Assumpta est Maria by his elder Marc-Antoine Charpentier, as well as with L'Histoire de la Femme adulère, Clérambault's only known oratorio. The work is based on the canons of 17th-century Roman oratorio, modeled in particular by Carissimi. Clérambault succeeds in fusing French and Italian tastes, blending French declamatory style with ultramontane structural elements.

Opera in concert version

Sunday May 25th 2025

Wagner : Siegfried

Composed between 1856 and 1871, but premiered for the inauguration of Bayreuth in 1876, Siegfried is the opera of its eponymous hero, who slays the dragon Fafner and the dwarf Mime, then frees the Valkyrie Brünnhilde by crossing the wall of flames that protects her: kissing her to awaken her, he gives her the Ring in an oath of love... Wagner gives this powerful fresco extraordinary scope.

Opera in concert version

Tuesday May 27th 2025 - Crusades Room

Philidor : Ernelinde, Princess of Norway

A considerable composer and world-renowned chess player, Philidor was a pivotal figure in late 18th-century French opera. His Ernelinde princesse de Norvège was hailed as a highly modern composition, paving the way for Gluck and the reformed French opera of Louis XVI's reign. Music inspired by Pergolesi and the other great Italian masters, a drama concentrated into just three acts, vocal writing that is alternately virtuosic and heroic, and picturesque ballets are all features that distinguish Philidor's score as extremely singular for its time.

Concert

Tuesday June 3rd 2025 - Royal Chapel

Music for French Cathedrals in the 17th century

With the Pages and Chantres of the Center for Baroque Music in Versailles, Fabien Armengaud breathes new life into the finest works from the Tours and Deslauriers manuscripts, like a voyage through the provinces of the Kingdom in the 17th century.

Concert

Tuesday June 10th 2025 - Royal Chapel

Bach : Cantates for sunday "Jubilate"

The maestro John Eliot Gardiner continues to immerse himself in Bach's cantatas, taking the same approach as he did for his complete works to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, following the liturgical calendar rather than chronological order. This first concert therefore focuses on the cantatas for Jubilate Sunday: the third or fourth Sunday after Easter.

Concert

Wednesday June 11th 2025 - Royal Chapel

Bach : Cantatas for the 16th Sunday after Trinity Sunday

The second part of this diptych devoted to Bach’s cantatas combines a work composed for Mühlhausen, where the first cantatas written by Bach in 1707-1708 appeared: the sumptuous funeral cantata actus tragicus (BWV 106), a true masterpiece, and those for Leipzig (BWV 8, 27 and 95) composed between 1723 and 1726. John Eliot Gardiner, a great specialist in the cantor, embarked on an incredible Bach pilgrimage throughout Europe in 2000: his masterful, humane and passionate interpretation was a landmark and continues to move audiences with its exceptional vision.

Ballet

From Tuesday June 12th to Saturday June 14th 2025

Junior ballet of Paris Opera

Made up of 18 dancers recruited through an international competition to give them all the tools they need to develop their talent, the Junior Ballet was born in 2024. And given the extraordinary reputation of the Paris Opera Ballet, it promises surprises, discoveries and extraordinary talent!

Opera in concert version

Sunday June 15th 2025

Lully : Proserpine

With Proserpine, Lully served the evolution of the lyric tragedy genre he himself had founded by exploring a wide variety of vocal and orchestral combinations. The orchestra was no longer content to play instrumental diversions framing the action, but contributed to the dramatic progression by supporting and replicating the characters and choruses. The duet of Pluton and Ascalaphe, the first bass duet in this repertoire, also testifies to the renewal of the genre. According to musicologist Jérôme de La Gorce, this work bears witness to "decisive changes for the future of tragedy".

Opera in concert version

Monday June 16th 2025 - Hall of Mirrors

Charpentier - Actéon

A pastoral blending jubilation and tragedy, beauty and cruelty, Actéon is an ideal musical gem to showcase the magnificent young singers of the Royal Opera Academy, gathered for their end-of-cycle performance: what better setting than the Galerie des Glaces for this highly Baroque work, and for an exceptional evening?

Opera in concert version

Wednesday June 18th 2025 - Hercules Room

Landi : La Morte d'Orfeo

Stéphane Fuget continues his exploration of early Italian opera, after recording Monteverdi's trilogy of operas at Versailles. Following on from the latter (Orfeo, 1607), Stefano Landi's La Morte d'Orfeo (1619) sets to music the hero's return after his failure to bring Euridice back to earth. Grief-stricken, Orfeo renounces earthly pleasures. Dionysus takes offense, and delivers him to the fury of the Bacchae: he dies torn to pieces under their blows.

Opera in staged version

From Thursday June 19th to Sunday June 22nd 2025

Le Carnaval Baroque

An original creation, a unique show: at the crossroads of Baroque music and circus arts, this Carnival tells the story of a day of festivities in Venice. From a picturesque feast to street theater and a manhunt along the canals, singers and acrobats enchant us with dances and popular songs.

Concert

Thursday June 19th 2025

Janus 2025: of past and present

With a new work by Adrien Trybucki, the Pages and Singers of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, conducted by Fabien Armengaud and Clément Buonomo, offer a panorama of double-choir works from across the centuries, to mark the new partnership between the CMBV and Ircam.

Concert

Monday June 23rd 2025 - Crusades Room

Mozart / Jadin : Concertos of pianoforte

A jewel in the rising generation of French keyboardists, Justin Taylor connects these works through the dazzle they still bring today, the extraordinary freshness of youth and inspiration!

Concert

Thursday June 26th 2025 - Royal Chapel

In the Style of the Masters

The entire baroque period delighted in “parodying” and drawing inspiration from the music of the Masters, to whose style this programme is dedicated: Vivaldi and Rameau are the symbols of this, but their style, too, was much-copied. Valentin Tournet celebrates astonishing rediscoveries in this “original” programme, In the Style of the Masters.

Concerts

Monday June 30th 2025 - Hercules Room

Bach : Concertos for 1,2,3 violin(s)

For this exceptional concert of Bach’s famous concertos for violin, Théotime Langlois de Swarte, the young baroque violin prodigy, will direct the Orchestra of the Opéra Royal for the very first time. This is the perfect occasion to enjoy of Bach’s concertos for one, two and three violins, masterpieces of the genre and of late baroque, combining virtuosity and expressing singing in a tribute to the German composer.

Opera in staged version

Saturday June 5th and Sunday June 6th July 2025 - Queen's theater

Vivaldi : La Senna Festeggiante

This grand two-part Serenade, in the format of a small opera, brings together Virtue and the Golden Age on the banks of the festive Seine. The glory of the King of France is allegorically magnified by particularly sumptuous, virtuoso music.

Concert

From Saturday 12th to Monday 14th July 2025

Vivaldi/Guido : The Four Seasons

The publication of Guido's Seasons in Versailles does not bear a date, but is thought to date from the period 1725-1733. In any case, Guido's Seasons are contemporary with Vivaldi's famous Seasons, perhaps a little earlier. So, who inspired whom?

Recurring shows

The 2024-2025 musical season

All shows

Program of the Equestrian Academy of Versailles

Equestrian Show

The Great Stables

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