A Night for the King

The final gala concert of the 20th Summer Festivities of Early Music will be an homage to French Baroque opera with its masterly amalgamation of music and dance.

A Night for the King narrates a story of two lovers, performed by two exquisite vocal artists, Katherine Watson and Mathias Vidal.

The protagonists wander through fantastic lands whose inhabitants – here represented by solo dancers Anna Chirescu and Artur Zakirov – gloss on the fate of the vocalists.

The story line includes a pastorale, a descent to the underworld and countless expressions of passionate love. Such dramatic emotional turns need to be rendered by true masters in order to be believable.

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville and Jean-Marie Leclair, who all composed for the king Louis XV, are musical narrators par excellence.

Every bite of this delicious music will be lovingly prepared by Collegium Marianum and its artistic director Jana Semerádová, every step will be carefully designed by the famous choreographer Natalie van Parys.

The project is part of a long-term collaboration with the prestigious Centre de musique baroque de Versailles and a collaboration with the French Institute.

SYNOPSIS

In an idyllic atmosphere of a blooming garden which teems with flower symbolic, a young girl confesses her love to a young man. The youth, however, decides to listen to the call of honour and become a soldier. The following tempest is an image of the lovelorn girl’s hurt pride and suffering. Before the youth goes to battle, the lovers meet again and end up quarrelling. The youth finds himself in the dungeon of hell where he is forced to undergo a thousand deaths. Then, suddenly, a prophecy is heard that foretells him love. The girl wakes up from a nightmare and the two lovers reunite.