Celebration of Louis XV

In 1712, in the Gallery of the Stags at the Château de Fontainebleau, the king’s musicians performed a new work: “La Jérusalem Délivrée,” an opera composed by one of the most distinguished personalities of the kingdom, second only to the king himself: the Duke Philippe d’Orléans (future Regent of France). A discerning musician, pupil of Charpentier and Campra, he primarily took Gervais as his Master of Music from 1700 onwards: it is with his assistance that he composed three tragédies en musique, including this “Jerusalem,” a “sequel to Armide,” featuring the two pairs of chivalric heroes Renaud and Armide, and Tancrède and Herminie, who had already inspired famous operas by Lully and Campra. A patron of the arts, Philippe d’Orléans also emerges as a true composer. Here, finally, is the rediscovery of his major work, under the eager eye of Leonardo García Alarcón, conducting leading soloists and his virtuosic Cappella Mediterranea.

Co-production by the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and Cappella Mediterranea

Opera in a prologue and five acts with a libretto by Hilaire-Bernard Requeleyne, based on “La Gerusalemme liberata” by Tasso, premiered in Fontainebleau in 1704.