Oratorio and opéra sacré in France (1700-1830): experimental genres ?

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01/10/2012

The oratorio in France began in a very limited way. At the end of the seventeenth century, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, strongly inspired by the works of Carissimi and other Italian composers heard during his stay in Rome, composed numerous histoires sacrées of varying lengths, all of them masterworks. But performed before small cenacles, never published and having a very limited circulation, they had no impact or influence in inspiring others to follow suit. After the last histoire sacrée, Judicium Salomonis of 1702, and Charpentier’s death in 1704, hardly any oratorios were composed in France.

CD-Book Rodolphe Kreutzer. La Mort d'Abel (2012). Translation: Mary Pardoe.