Charpentier's

Messe de Minuit

Celebrate the season with Pinchgut

Charpentier's

Messe de Minuit

Pinchgut Opera made its much-anticipated return to the stage at City Recital Hall in December 2020.

One of Charpentier’s most joyous works, the Messe de Minuit was written in 1694 for midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Based on eleven traditional French carols, the music dances with pure delight.

In a first for Australian audiences, these performances will feature the beautiful sound of the baroque musette, the small bagpipes traditionally heard at Christmas time in France, played by virtuoso Simon Rickard.

We invite you to celebrate the season with us and with the enchanting music of the French baroque.

★★★★½

"This was a performance of subtle grace that was beautiful in its clarity and simplicity, and stylistically sophisticated but without affectation."

- Sydney Morning Herald

★★★★

"Comfort and joy from Pinchgut Opera, in a Christmas concert of interweaving colours and enchanting hues."

- Limelight

PROGRAM

Charpentier Messe de Minuit
Boismortier Balet de Village No. 1
Chédeville Noëls
Charpentier Salve puerule

Sung in Latin

The performance is approximately 70 minutes, with no interval.

VIEW PROGRAM

ARTIST INFORMATION

Featuring Simon Rickard musette

Chloe Lankshear soprano

Anna Fraser soprano

Eric Peterson tenor

Nicholas Jones tenor

David Greco baritone

Orchestra of the Antipodes

Erin Helyard Conductor

Simon Rickard playing the baroque musette

COVID SAFETY

Concerts will remain at 50% for the comfort of our audience members who would prefer the guarantee of one or two empty seats on either side of their seat, and bookings of a maximum of two people.

For Pinchgut Opera's COVID safety information for audiences, click here.

Please read the Pinchgut Opera Ticketing Terms and Conditions before purchasing your tickets.

A very Charpentier Christmas

By Genevieve Lang

Our first-ever Christmas concert promises no less than an Arcadian escape, much needed after the year that was…

Pinchgut Opera has only once before presented Charpentier’s music. Maybe you remember our production of David and Jonathan from 2008? Musically remarkable for its failure to follow French operatic conventions of the day, it’s a psychological drama with one of the most haunting ghost scenes in all of Baroque opera.

Which might make Erin Helyard’s choice of Charpentier a bit odd for a Christmas concert – yes? [Or maybe not, given the year we’ve had – Ed.]

Well, the good news is that Charpentier’s emotional and dramatic musical palette runs the gauntlet from deeply disturbing as in D&J, through delightfully comic in his collaborations with Molière, and arrives at joyfully uplifting with his Messe de Minuit pour Noël. ‘It really is the perfect piece for a much-needed festive occasion,’ says Erin...

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The baroque musette

The baroque musette was a diminutive, bellows-blown bagpipe associated with the French aristocracy from around 1550 until the French Revolution. Although rarely seen in early music performances today, the baroque musette was wildly popular in its day. Paintings by Watteau and Lancret frequently feature a musette playing in the background. Composers such as Rameau, Leclair and Marais called for one or more musettes in their opera orchestras, and a significant amount of chamber music for musette survives today, attesting to its popularity with amateur musicians. It was considered the only woodwind instrument fit for ladies to play, since, being bellows blown, they did not need to do something unattractive with their mouth in order to play it.

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Marc-Antoine Charpentier

(1643-1704)

Charpentier was born in an aristocratic France where music was predominantly heard in the church and stylistically influenced by Italian and German models. Well-to-do Charpentier found himself studying law in Paris and eventually music in Rome. There he was spotted by the composer Giacomo Carissimi, who became his mentor.

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