Two countertenors for an iconic work: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. This is the resurrection of the history of the French premiere of this work, originally performed by two castrati from Louis XV’s Royal Chapel !

Just months before his death at the age of twenty-six, Pergolesi was commissioned to compose a new Stabat Mater to replace an earlier version by Alessandro Scarlatti. Afflicted by illness, he expressed the Virgin Mary’s suffering in a language of passion borrowed from opera. Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, composed in 1736, is one of the most emblematic works of the Baroque period. It had a profound impact on the musical world of the 18^th century, particularly in France.

The Italian castrati of the Royal Chapel of Versailles (Louis XIV had brought eight of them from Italy as early as 1679 for his sacred music) were the enthusiastic champions of this work, having brought the score themselves from Italy. At the court of Louis XV and at the Concert Spirituel, they introduced Paris to Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, igniting the city’s passion for what was seen as a revolutionary work by a Neapolitan genius who had tragically died so young. Its success remained undiminished throughout the century.

To fully capture the splendour of this sumptuous duet of angelic voices lamenting Mary’s sorrow at the foot of the Cross, it takes two performers capable of blending their timbres, in the spirit of the Neapolitan castrati for whom the music was originally written.

Nicolò Balducci and Rémy Brès-Feuillet will be accompanied by the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal, conducted by Chloé de Guillebon.

The Royal Opera Productions.

CD available in the Château de Versailles Spectacles collection.

With the generous support of the Françoise Kahn-Hamm Endowment Fund.

Stabat Mater pour deux castrats

Candlelight concert.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

In furore iustissimae irae

Stabat Mater

Jean-Baptiste Pergolèse (1710-1736)

Stabat Mater