The famous Ballet Royal de la Nuit, danced on by Louis XIV when he was fifteen years old, was performed at the Louvre in 1653 over seven evenings. It was a complete success: Mazarin, back from exile after the Fronde, wanted to make an impact with this ballet he had conducted himself: the goal was to impose respect for the aristocracy, impress Parisians, and spread the royal message through the ambassadors. Without a doubt, the Ballet Royal de la Nuit was one of the most striking spectacles of Louis XIV’s reign, on many levels: politically, institutionally, aesthetically, and musically. For the first time, a score had been built around four parts and a final ballet with everything working towards the same objective: staging a sunrise. The King himself danced, as well as his brother and several Dukes. Characters, scenes, decors and costumes perfectly encapsulate the Great Century. Each verse alternates between whimsical, serious, comic, burlesque, mythological, and Romanesque. As previously mentioned the objective is to impose a royal figure above all others, whilst creating a never seen proximity between the monarch and his subjects. With each part, ladies of the court, hunters, gods, bandits, cripples, soldiers, Egyptians, etc. coexist freely. The show highlights everything that goes on at night, when the good people are asleep. The message is clear: ”The Sun that follows me is the young Louis!”, and yet, after 1653, the Ballet Royal de la Nuit was never performed again. On top of this, the ballets partition – authored by several composers as it was a collective work – was lost with the exception of the first violin part, copied by Philidor a few decades later. However, the vocal music was retrieved, as well as the score. The work had to be pieced back together, a colossal task: this is a “pastiche” in the historic meaning of the word, but fantastically convincing. The excellent accompanying booklet for this wonderful recording by Sébastien Daucé and his Correspondances Ensemble cites all the sources that were used for the reconstitution. © SM/Qobuz