Les Idées heureuses : A season of inventiveness

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Following the Bach suites reinterpreted by Dorothéa Ventura and Vincent Lauzer in September, Les Idées heureuses moves on to French repertoire with the same spirit of inventiveness, welcoming one of its great specialists, Hervé Niquet, in November.

Ventura met him 30 years ago when she was a student at McGill University, attending his master classes in French baroque music. “I admit it was quite a shock,” she says. “Hervé expanded my horizons and I developed a love for this repertoire. We gave concerts in Montreal, Toronto, Paris, but this is the first time I’ve invited him. Hervé has always been my patron, but now the roles are reversed. It’s a bit strange!”

Niquet, founder of the Paris ensemble Le Concert spirituel, will present a musical program that he devised and wrote with director and actor Jean-Philippe Desrousseaux. Coming to this side of the Atlantic for the first time, the show is entitled Pâté en croûte et vieux ragots, and will feature Niquet dressed as Michel Richard de Lalande, court composer at Versailles. He will lead a rehearsal with the king’s chamber musicians exactly as if we were historically there. On the menu are four Sinfonies pour les Soupers du Roy and two interludes. As Niquet explains: “It’s demanding music, of very high quality, not just background music for meals. Only the best get to play at the king’s table, and if you don’t charm him, you’re out on your ear.” The concert is also a reminder of the 300th anniversary of the death of one of the “favourite geniuses of Louis XIV and Louis XV.”

Between two suites, de Lalande will be interrupted by the sound of a post horn and the arrival of either the gazette—he reads out the latest gossip with glee—or else his cook (played by Desrousseaux), who has made his favourite dish: pâté en croûte (meat pie). “When the audience arrives,” says Niquet, “I’ll already be on stage as I have to finish a couple of jigs for tomorrow’s supper.* I’ve summoned the musicians to put the finishing touches to everything and orchestrate the pieces. You don’t get to see that normally.” It all begins on Nov. 25 at Salle Bourgie!