In this lecture, we deal with the particular position of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s tragédie en musique David et Jonathas (1688) on the libretto by François Bretonneau, one of two operas based on the Old Testament − besides Jephté (1732) by Michel Montéclair − in the whole French baroque repertoire. Beyond that, the unique position of this work in the history of music lies in the fact that it is, in its first performance in the college of Jesuits Luis le Grand in Paris, performed in combination with the other biblical, literary drama, Saul by Father Étienne Chamillard. This opera is in this sense strongly marked by several crossings: of two religious and cultural paradigms, Judean and Christian / Catholic, of two genres, literary and musical tragedy, of two spheres, sacred and profane – the crossing obtained by the insertion of the religious subject in a secular musical genre −, and finally, of musical generic models, also involving a stylistic and musical poetic mixture that come from this opposition. The conference will focus on these multiple crossings, giving this Charpentier’s opera a special place in the French and European lyric field.
