Dryden Ensemble's "Versailles"
For my birthday, JM gave the gift of a ticket to the concert Versailles, a program of Baroque music and readings she conceived for the group she leads, the Dryden Ensemble. TCH and I attended the concert at Trinity Church, Princeton, this afternoon. The music pieces alternated with readings from the letters of Elisabeth Charlotte (a German princess who married Philippe I d’Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV), the memoirs of the Duc of Saint-Simon, and Moliére’s plays. The readings outline the story of Elisabeth Charlotte: her arrival at the French Court as a young naïve bride; her unhappy marriage with the homosexual Philippe; her antagonism with the King’s mistress Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon; the king’s death; and finally her own death. Roberta Maxwell read as Elisabeth Charlotte while Paul Hecht read as the Duc of Saint-Simon. The music was composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), Louis Couperin (1626-1661), Marin Marais (1656-1728), Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (c.1...