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Opéra Royal - Bach: MAGNIFICAT
Friday 12 December 2025
20:00 to 21:15
Location : Chapelle Royale
Destination
Place d'Armes
78000
Versailles
GPS coordinates
Latitude : 48.804957
Longitude : 2.122303
BY CAR: GPS: Château de Versailles, Place d'Armes, 78000 Versailles
-A13 motorway > Versailles Notre Dame exit
-A86 motorway > Versailles Centre exit
PLACE D'ARMES PARKING LOT
- During the day before 7 p.m.: paid parking. No access via the central driveway. Please note that the parking lot is full on Sundays. We recommend arriving 1 hour early and parking in town.
- In the evening from 7 p.m.*: free parking. Access only via the central driveway, at the statue of Louis XIV, and parking on the right, on the bus side.
*Opens at 6:15 p.m. for shows starting at 7 p.m.
BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT
- LINE N: Montparnasse Station > Versailles Chantiers Station
Direction: Dreux, Mantes-la-Jolie, Rambouillet.
- LINE L: Gare St-Lazare > Gare de Versailles Rive Droite Dir. Versailles Rive Droite.
- RER C: Paris > Gare de Versailles Château Rive Gauche Dir. Versailles Rive Gauche Château.
- BUS 171: Pont de Sèvres > Versailles Château stop.
-A13 motorway > Versailles Notre Dame exit
-A86 motorway > Versailles Centre exit
PLACE D'ARMES PARKING LOT
- During the day before 7 p.m.: paid parking. No access via the central driveway. Please note that the parking lot is full on Sundays. We recommend arriving 1 hour early and parking in town.
- In the evening from 7 p.m.*: free parking. Access only via the central driveway, at the statue of Louis XIV, and parking on the right, on the bus side.
*Opens at 6:15 p.m. for shows starting at 7 p.m.
BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT
- LINE N: Montparnasse Station > Versailles Chantiers Station
Direction: Dreux, Mantes-la-Jolie, Rambouillet.
- LINE L: Gare St-Lazare > Gare de Versailles Rive Droite Dir. Versailles Rive Droite.
- RER C: Paris > Gare de Versailles Château Rive Gauche Dir. Versailles Rive Gauche Château.
- BUS 171: Pont de Sèvres > Versailles Château stop.
Event Organizer
Château de Versailles Spectacles
Location
Chapelle Royale
Place d'Armes
78000
Versailles
Presentation
December 1723. Johann Sebastian Bach has just taken up his position as cantor at St. Thomas Church and is celebrating his first winter in Leipzig. He composes the first version of what will become one of his most famous masterpieces: his Magnificat.
Some four hundred years later, the sequence of events during those vespers that enchanted the Nikolaikirche on Christmas Day is now known. Vincent Dumestre retraces precisely this event, in line with the cantor's wishes: Bach introduced the Leipzig audience to new works of his own composition, such as his original version of the Magnificat, composed for the occasion, and the cantata Christen, ätzet diesen Tag BWV 63. But he combined them in keeping with the long tradition of Leipzig cantors, inserting these new works among the motets, chorales, and hymns that appeared in the Florilegium Portense collection, arranged and edited by Erhard Bodenschatz a century earlier, or in Gottfried Vopelius' Gesangbuch. And to close these vespers on the late afternoon of December 25, 1723, Gott sei uns gnädig und barmherzig was finally sung – this simple yet moving hymn, as an epilogue to the very first performance of the Magnificat, a masterpiece that still resonates today on all stages.
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