The final concert of the festival will give the audience a glimpse into the rooms of perhaps the world’s most famous palace, which gave rise to the richest and most diverse musical repertoire of all the European royal residences of the 17th and 18th centuries. Early on, Louis XIV established a tradition of regular entertainment evenings in Versailles for selected members of the highest aristocracy. This musical “torch” was passed from the Sun King to the wife of Louis XV, Marie Leszczyńska, and would thereafter be imitated not only in France, but throughout Europe.

At concerts held in the king’s or queen’s salons, the nobility also watched so-called divertissements, small operas in concert performance. Both in Les Plaisirs de Versailles by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1682) and in Le Retour des dieux sur la terre by François Colin de Blamont (1725), there are a number of allegorical figures who, along with mythological deities, chant to the glory of – whom other than – the king. This Prague performance – by seven soloists and Collegium Marianum, the festival’s ensemble in residence under the direction of Jana Semerádová – is a modern-day premiere of Blamont’s work and will bring the festival programme ceremoniously to a close.

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