Brightly painted wooden marionettes, live actors dressed as peasants, and five musicians playing period instruments (including one on a hurdy-gurdy!) come together on one stage to engage in one of humanity’s favorite pastimes: making fun of itself! Experience Lully’s Atys like you’ve never seen it before in this piece of delightful satire, 18th-century style!
Lully’s grand masterwork Atys was a cultural touchstone of the 18th century, a phenomenon whose musical influence was felt at all levels of society. And like any cultural phenomenon, it became the butt of satire, combined with popular music and entertainment forms to transform it into a kind of Baroque Vaudeville. In Atys en folie (“Atys gone mad”), stage director Jean-Philippe Desrousseaux and the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles pay homage to one of the most popular of these satirical forms, the parody, with this stage piece for singers, marionettes, and musicians. Princes, princesses, and kings are relegated to the roles of peasants, farmers, and fishermen in a universe transposed into the French countryside, complete with bales of hay and winsome farmer's daughters!
Photo: © La Merise
