Les Arts Florissant
Dallas Bach Society
James Richman

When he composed Les Arts Florissants, Marc Antoine Charpentier was in the service of the Duchesse de Guise, where he enjoyed the presence of a small but exquisite ensemble of musicians. Les Arts Florissants, which Charpentier called both Idyle en musique and Opéra, was written in 1685 as best as can be judged, and thus was subject to the Royal Patent for opera held by Lully. Simply put, this Patent limited the number of musicians and singers in dramatic musical works for everyone else, thus insuring Lully’s monopoly in the field of opera. While Charpentier did live long enough to survive Lully and this prohibition and to write his full-blown opera Médée, the cleverness with which he overcame the legal limitations in the current work is perhaps an even greater proof of his genius.