Airs and instrumental music from early French opera by Cambert, Lully, Grabu, Charpentier and Rameau

The musicians of Les Arts Florissants are considered to be among the world’s greatest interpreters of the sparkling, brightly coloured works of French Baroque opera, with fresh, sensual performances full of dancing rhythms and simmering passions.

Under conductor Paul Agnew, they bring together some of the genre’s most fascinating moments, and also chart a brief history of the period, from the very first French opera, Robert Cambert’s Pomone of 1671, through to the imaginative, sensual music of Rameau’s highly virtuosic Les Indes galantes of 1735. On the way, we discover Lully’s first and last stage works, Cadmus et Hermione and Armide, the French-style opera that Louis Grabu wrote for the English court of Charles II, and the dark yet spectacular Médée by Charpentier.