Chapelle Royale - José de Torrès : Réquiem for Louis 1st of Spain

Tuesday 28 January 2025

20:00 to 21:10

Location : Opéra Royal

FICHE_INFO_SIMPLE_LIBELLE_DESTINATION

Place d'Armes

78000

Versailles

GPS coordinates

Latitude : 48.804967

Longitude : 2.122255

Event Organizer

Château de Versailles Spectacles

Phone : +33 1 30 83 78 89

"Château de Versailles Spectacles"

Location

Opéra Royal

Place d'Armes

78000

Versailles

Château de Versailles Spectacles

Presentation

Despite the brevity of his reign, Louis I The Well-Beloved, King for 150 days, received for his funeral a splendid Requiem for two choirs signed by his Chapel Master José de Torres (1670-1738, Master of the Madrid Chapel for thirty-one years).

King Philip V of Spain (1683-1746), the grandson of Louis XIV who came to the Spanish throne in 1700, pursued a very active foreign policy from 1722, favouring a strong rapprochement with France, in particular through the marriage of his daughter Marie-Anne-Victoire of Spain to the young King Louis XV, and that of his eldest son the Dauphin Louis of Spain, Prince of Asturias, to Louise-Elisabeth, daughter of Philippe d'Orléans, Regent of France. The young French bride, who brought a considerable dowry of four million pounds, was only twelve years old and refused to appear at the Spanish Court or even speak to her royal husband.

Philip V abdicated in 1724 in favour of his son Louis, to seal the new alliance with France more firmly. Exactly three hundred years ago, on 15 January 1724, Louis I became King of Spain at the age of seventeen. Clumsy because of his youth, surrounded by loyal followers whom he sought to place, and above all preoccupied with organising sumptuous festivities, he contracted smallpox, which killed him on 31 August 1724, without an heir.

His reign was so brief that it did not leave its mark.

Philip V immediately resumed the throne, for two decades... He quickly renounced the French alliance, and the young Louise-Elisabeth was ruthlessly sent back to France after France broke off the engagement of Marie-Anne-Victoire and Louis XV... The former widowed Queen of Spain lived in oblivion and piety until her death in 1742.

The young and talented Alberto Miguélez Rouco, conducted by French and Spanish performers, has unearthed this previously unpublished work, which will bring the music of the Real Capilla de Madrid to the Chapelle Royale in Versailles!