Feelings and torments, who could evoke them better than Henry Purcell?
Passions and storms, who better to describe them than William Shakespeare?
These two artists placed their genius at the service of the people, and it is into their worlds, singular and teeming, that we invite actors and musicians to enliven today's audiences. Armed with their versatility and skill, by the light of a few candles, they bring this terribly baroque world to life.
We are in London at the end of the 17th century, between dog and wolf, it's raining outside the window, the cards are being dealt on the table. In the company of Frances Purcell, the musician's widow, and publisher Henry Playford, we leaf through the master's posthumous collection, the
Orpheus britannicus, a veritable 'bible' of the best moments of all his brilliant output.
Spirits Songs for some, Music for a while for others, we rediscover Beth's madness, the exotic encounter with an Indian queen, or the picaresque Don Quixote. And as we leap from scene to scene, between dangerous seductions and bold jokes, Shakespeare's entire theatre is invited to the party.
Built around great musical pages written "to pass the time" (symphonic pieces, masques and canons, arias for singing or drinking, monologues and scenes from tragedy), the evening shifts and rocks, between staged concert and Elizabethan theatre set to music. It's a cabaret, with epic characters appearing in counterpoint, all conjured up from a dream…
