Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal de Versailles
The Royal Opera of the Château de Versailles hosts over a hundred performances each season, welcoming leading international artists to its prestigious stage. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera was founded in 2019 for The Ghosts of Versailles by John Corigliano. Bringing together musicians who regularly perform with top conductors, the orchestra embraces a broad repertoire spanning the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods.
Across the seasons, a range of conductors lead the ensemble, each offering a distinctive musical perspective according to the programme, including Gaétan Jarry, Stefan Plewniak, Victor Jacob, Théotime Langlois de Swarte, Andrés Gabetta, Justin Taylor and Chloé de Guillebon.
At the Royal Opera, it appears in major new staged productions of Tarare (Salieri), Pygmalion (Rameau) / Le Cadi dupé (Gluck), The Barber of Seville (Rossini), Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Handel) and Marc-Antoine et Cléopâtre (Hasse), as well as revivals of Don Giovanni (Mozart), Roméo et Juliette (Zingarelli) and La Fille du régiment (Donizetti). The orchestra is also prominently featured in core repertoire, including Mozart’s and Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Passions, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres.
Highly active on the touring circuit, the orchestra brings its virtuosity to leading venues in France and worldwide, notably with its flagship programme The Three Countertenors, performed around thirty times across the globe. It has appeared at major venues including the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Teatros del Canal and the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the Palais Farnese in Rome, and major concert halls across Asia and Europe.
The orchestra is also a regular guest at prestigious international festivals such as the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival, the Gstaad New Year Festival, the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe, as well as leading French festivals.