The Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal was formed in 2019 for John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles. Comprising musicians who regularly work with leading conductors, the Orchestra champions a wide repertoire ranging from baroque to classical to romantic. Due to the history of the place whose name it bears, the core repertoire consists of music from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Several conductors have led the Orchestra over the seasons, including Gaétan Jarry, Stefan Plewniak, Victor Jacob and, most recently, the young baroque violin virtuoso Théotime Langlois de Swarte.
For this 2024/25 season, the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal had a strong presence at Versailles, with more than twenty productions and over forty performances, including Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Porpora’s Polifemo, Bizet’s Carmen, Donizetti’s La fille du régimentand Vivaldi’s La senna festeggiante.
The Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal also tours extensively, showcasing its virtuosity on the finest stages in France and around the world. It has performed at the Salle Gaveau, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Gstaad New Year Music Festival, on tour in South Korea, in Hanoi and at the major summer festivals such as the Festival Valloire Baroque, at the Abbaye du Thoronet, in Cahors, Prades, Bauges and Uzès, at the Festival de Sablé, in La Rochelle, at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid, in Castellón, at the prestigious Peralada Festival and at the Grange au Lac festival in Évian. In April 2024, the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal embarked on a fifteen-date tour of China, Mongolia and Vietnam (to where it will return this season) to coincide with the joint exhibition between the Château de Versailles and the Palace Museum of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Through this series of concerts, the expertise of the Orchestra’s musicians has even been enjoyed as far away as Asia. As such, the Orchestra performed at the inauguration of the Ho Guom Opera in Hanoi in July 2023, establishing a partnership between the Opéra Royal of the Château de Versailles and the Ho Guom Opera Hanoi. This partnership has been extended through the co-production of Thierry Malandain’s ballet Les Saisons in December 2023, which was performed on tour in Hanoi in autumn 2024. The tour also included a performance of Malandain’s ballet Marie-Antoinette in Bangkok.
This season, the orchestra made its début at the Auditorio Nacional de la Música in Madrid, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe.
The Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal is a key presence on the Château de Versailles Spectacles record label (winner of Label of the Year 2022 at the International Classical Music Awards) and plays an active role in its recordings. Among the most acclaimed are the Stabat Maters by Pergolesi and Vivaldi conducted by Marie Van Rhijn (Diamond award from Opéra Magazine), Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres conducted by Stéphane Fuget, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Andrés Gabetta (Choc award from Classica), Zingarelli’s Giulietta e Romeo conducted by Stefan Plewniak (Choc award from Classica), the Coronation Anthems by Purcell and Handel brought together by Gaétan Jarry in The Crown, Vivaldi’s La Senna festeggiante conducted by Diego Fasolis, the Plácido Domingo Gala at Versailles, Handel’s Messiah conducted by Franco Fagioli and Dis-moi Vénus… with Marie Perbost and Gaétan Jarry (Choice award from France Musique).
