Born Paris 1643.
Died Paris, 24 February 1704.
French composer.
In recent years, Charpentier's final masterpiece, a great lyric tragedy, Médée, has been restored to the repertoire, and even his earlier works such as the fascinating Actéon have been found to contain much treasure. He was the victim of political interference at court during his early career. His big break also turned into a dead-end - he composed some excellent music for Molière's wonderful comedy The Imaginary Invalid, in which the author played the title role, only to have to endure the frustration of Molière's death during the play's first run.
Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:-
01 Le malade imaginaire (Paris 1673) (Molière)
02 Les plaisirs de Versailles (early 1680s) ()
03 Actéon (Paris 1683-5) (anon)
04 Les arts florissants (Paris 1685-6) (anon)
05 La descente d’Orphée aux enfers (c1686) (anon)
06 La fête de Rueil (1685) ()
07 La couronne de fleurs (1685) ()
08 Celse martyr (Paris 1687) (lost)
09 David et Jonathas (Paris 1688) (Bretonneau)
10 Médée (Paris 1693) (T Corneille)
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