What’s on Shows Share Print Resize Exhibitions Shows Events Patronage Life on the estate Operas in concert version Tuesday August 29th 2023 Berlioz : Les Troyens An opera in five acts with a libretto by Hector Berlioz inspired by Virgil's Aeneid, premiered in its entirety in Carlsruhe in 1890. Shows Saturday October 7th 2023 La Consécration de Versailles The young Louis XIII came for the first time to Versailles in 1607, accompanying his father Henry IV on the hunt. In 1623 he decided to build a hunting relay there to spend the night. He slept for the first time in June 1624 in this royal country residence, which he rebuilt and enlarged in 1631: the most beautiful palace in the world is in the making, but already its exceptional location fascinates the French Sovereigns... 400 years ago! Ballets From December 14th to 17th 2023 Malandain Ballet Biarritz : Les Saisons Coproduction Royal Opera / Palace of Versailles Shows, Festival de Danse de Cannes - Côte d’Azur France, Teatro Victoria Eugenia - Ballet T - Ville de Donostia San Sebastián, Opéra de Saint-Etienne, Theater Bonn – Allemagne, CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz. Operas staged version Sunday October 8th 2023 Haendel : Ariodante Considered Handel's most accomplished opera, Ariodante contains some of the most iconic arias in the Baroque repertoire. Yet it was only in 2018 that William Christie and Les Arts Florissants first performed this pristine masterpiece, which they revisit here for a new, youthful production. Concerts Saturday October 14th 2023 Mozart : Requiem Unfinished masterpiece, musical testament, timeless sacred composition and beyond the liturgical framework, Mozart’s Requiem accumulates superlatives. Fountains show Hall of Mirrors La Sérénade Royale On summer Saturdays, after the Musical Fountains Show or before the Night Fountains Show, discover the Grand Apartments of Château de Versailles as you have never seen them before. Ballets From wednesday 20th to saturday 30th december 2023 Ballet Preljocaj: Snow White Snow White is a great romantic contemporary ballet, based on the Grimm brothers’ version of the fairytale. For this miraculous performance, Angelin Preljocaj brings together the company’s twenty-six dancers to the most beautiful scores of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies. The costumes are by Jean Paul Gaultier, the sets by Thierry Leproust. Ballets Sunday 31st december 2023 Ballet Preljocaj: Snow White Snow White is a great romantic contemporary ballet, based on the Grimm brothers’ version of the fairytale. "For this miraculous performance, Angelin Preljocaj brings together the company’s twenty-six dancers to the most beautiful scores of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies. The costumes are by Jean Paul Gaultier, the sets by Thierry Leproust. Gala evenings Sunday October 1st 2023 Dis-moi Vénus... ADOR gala concert «Dis-moi, Vénus…» reveals the figure of the goddess of Love from the initial chorus of Rameau’s Castor et Pollux to the satirical mockery of Madness in Platée. The programme spans nearly three decades of French opera, with extracts of lyric tragedies and comic operas. Comédie-ballet From Thursday June 9th to Sunday June 19th 2022 Molière/Lully: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Molière portrays an adventurer of the mind whose only desire is to escape from his common condition and set foot in territories from which he is excluded... the discovery of a terra incognita which, by virtue of his birth, is forbidden to him. Why make fun of Monsieur Jourdain? The bourgeois simply strives to discover what we call "culture" today and sets about the ambitious task of living his dreams... Concerts Saturday October 7th 2023 The Birth of Versailles A very young Louis XIII came to Versailles for the first in 1607, to accompany his father Henry IV on the hunt. In 1623, he decided to have a hunting lodge built there so that he could stay overnight. He slept at this royal country residence for the first time in June 1624, before having it rebuilt and extended in 1631. The world’s most beautiful palace was in the making, but its stunning location fascinated French sovereigns – and had done for four hundred years! Concerts Friday November 24th 2023 Mozart : Symphonies n°39, 40 and 41 "Jupiter" Mozart’s final three symphonies, numbers 39, 40 and 41 respectively, were composed after the summer of 1788 before a début tour by Mozart. Their powerful writing has made them Mozart's most-performed triptych, but also the one most representative of Viennese classicism, lending a masterful composition – touching on perfection – to the inventiveness of the themes and the splendour of the orchestration. In short, these are Mozart's most pre-romantic works, while being the culmination of symphony’s classical form. The Olympian emphasis of the "Jupiter" alone forms the bridge between two eras. Concerts Saturday 2nd december 2023 Philippe Jaroussky recital: Forgotten Arias When it comes to opera seria from the 18th century, the genius of Handel or Vivaldi relegates other composers to the background, their work barely emerging from behind their colossal shadow. In the case of Johann Adolf Hasse, this oversight is quite simply scandalous, as the German musician mastered the language of Italian opera with just as much virtuosity as Handel. Acclaimed throughout his life, he married Faustina Bordoni, one of the greatest singers of the time and was himself a singer, unveiling a superb vocal composition, at once virtuosic and sensitive, earning him the faithful friendship of Farinelli. Bu Concerts Monday 4th December 2023 Récital Jakub Józef Orliński : Beyond It can never be said enough: 17th-century Italy, the famous Seicento, is a golden age of music, especially vocal. Never before or since have music and poetry found such a miraculous balance: the great expressive recitative and the melodic beauty fuse into a prodigious art form, while erudite music and popular vitality come together in glittering scores. This is the era of the most bountiful operas in history, with their inexpressible lamenti, as well as the wildest chaconnes, passacaglias and tarentellas. Concerts Sunday November 25th 2023 The Crown To mark the Coronation of King Charles III, we have brought together the most famous pieces of music from the coronations of James II in 1685 and George II in 1727. The masterpieces by Purcell and Handel display an extraordinarily evocative force that is marvellously well-suited to the choir and the Orchestra of the Opéra Royal directed by Gaétan Jarry. Concerts Mardi 28 novembre 2023 Cantatas: Time and eternity Après leur « trilogie sacrée » du printemps 2022, autour de la musique consacrée par Bach à la figure de Jésus, Pygmalion revient sous la direction de Raphaël Pichon dans un programme de cantates du compositeur. Pour Raphaël Pichon, Bach a été une révélation d’enfance : à neuf ans, il chante une Passion selon saint Jean et l’expérience lui fait l’effet d’un électrochoc. Concerts Tuesday December 5th 2023 Charpentier/Lully: Te Deum With his Te Deum, the Superintendent of the King's Music signed a major score, which established an official genre for a century. On 9 September 1677, in the Chapel of Fontainebleau, Lully conducted his Te Deum, composed for the christening of his eldest son, in the presence of Louis XIV, the child's godfather. The work is commensurate with the event: a masterpiece of musical architecture, the imposing orchestra requiring trumpets and timpani. The Te Deum remained the most performed religious work of its time: a royal wedding, a military victory, a cure for the king... 1677 was the year of Lully's most magnific Concerts Wednesday 6th december 2023 Mozart / Le Chevalier de Saint-George : Concertos for violon Mozart will be remembered for his fascination with the Court of France and his successes in Paris. Yet when it comes to Le Chevalier de Saint George, born in Guadeloupe 1745, all else remains to be discovered. A man of mixed race, born to a Black mother and White colonist father, a brilliant fencer destined for a military career who became Advisor to the King and Controller Ordinary of Wars, he quickly emerged as a virtuoso violinist and a key figure of Parisian life. Having joined the service of the Duke of Orléans, he gave private lessons to the Queen. Concerts Saturday December 9th 2023 Campra: Requiem “Campra is one of those masters, between Lully and Rameau: that generation at the beginning of the 18th century where there were a great number of very great composers. He has a remarkable and very singular personality.” William Christie Concerts Sunday December 10th 2023 Récital Sonya Yoncheva : Noël à Versailles Carols, choirs and pieces for Christmas. Over a decade, the Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva has become the queen of the world's most renowned stages. With her velvety voice and brilliant high notes, flawless articulation and imperial breath, her stage presence makes her a major incarnation of the heroines of the repertoire, where she is as brilliant in baroque as in classical and romantic repertoires. Operas in concert version Monday 8th January 2024 Gasparini : Atalia Francesco Gasparini’s Atalia is reborn at the Château de Versailles. This is a forgotten masterpiece, an oratorio of great dramatic intensity and exuberant music; it is also the first oratorio inspired by a work of French literature, Athalie by Racine. This piece by the French genius of tragedy was in fact first performed a year earlier, in 1691, at the Collège de Saint-Cyr near Paris. Recurring shows Program of the National Equestrian Academy of Versailles Equestrian Show The Great Stables The 2023-2024 musical season All shows Back to Exhibitions Shows Events Patronage Life on the estate
