Barockissimo, les Arts Florissants on stage

Exhibition catalogue de l'exposition Barockissimo, Arts Florissants on stage, présented at the Centre national du costume de scène, Moulins (9 avril - 18 septembre 2016).

Les Arts Florissants, founded in 1979 by the French-American conductor William Christie, had a key role in the rediscovery of the baroque repertoire.

The enthusiasm provoked by the now renowned production of Atys by Lully, at the Opéra-Comique in 1987, has lead Arts Florissants to work over the last three decades with the greatest producers Jean-Marie Villégier, Alfredo Arias, Pierre Barrat, Luc Bondy, Robert Carsen, Clément Hervieu-Léger, Andreas Homoki, Adrian Noble, Pier Luigi Pizzi... and choreographers Francine Lancelot, Trisha Brown, Jiří Kylián, Bianca Li, José Montalvo, Robin Orlyn.

The exhibition evokes the incredible inventiveness of Arts Florissants, that of a «baroque ever more baroque» with almost one hundred and fifty stage costumes coming from different productions.

We can admire as much the art and originality of the costume designers as the audacity and spirit of adventure of Arts Florissants, including the keg of Louis XIV to the feathers of the Incas or haute couture cross-dressing. Numerous shows evoked during this exhibition have been performed on the greatest French stages, the National Opera of Paris, the Opéra-Comique, the Theatre of the Champs-Elysées, the Theatre of Châtelet, the Theatre of Caen, the Aix-en- Provence International Festival, in prestigious festivals and also in Vienna, Madrid and New York. They demonstrate the productive partnership between these renowned venues and Les Arts Florissants, and the care taken in the design and performance of these shows, in a spirit of permanent creation, associating all of the professions contributing to performing arts.