Vivaldi was already a renowned opera composer in Venice and throughout Italy, but he gained exceptional notoriety throughout Europe when the concerti constituting his Quattro Stagioni were published in Amsterdam. These theme concertos, which embraced the imagination of Arcimboldo, gained top billing in private and public concerts. But their composition for solo violin has impressive virtuosity and expression: Stefan Plewniak becomes both unchained and sensual in them, not giving the Orchestre de l'Opera Royal any opportunity for respite in intensely sounding out these seasons that are so emblematic of Baroque Europe!

In 1733, Pergolesi created La Serva padrona in Naples, which won over Paris in 1752, becoming the symbol of Italian music. Quickly played in French as La Servante Maitresse, it inspired Rousseau for his Devin du Village, a parody of which was created under the title Les Amours de Bastien et Bastienne. Mozart discovered it in 1768 and composed his Bastien und Bastienne in German for the private theatre of the magician Mesmer. These two masterpieces bound through style and history come to life with colourful plots: lightness, falsehoods and what is comic create delightfully bubbly situations for the tyrannical servant and naive shepherds, from which Pergolesi and Mozart derived the best musical effects. Adele Carlier, David Tricou and Marc Scoffoni, with the Opera Royal Orchestra and Gaetan Jarry, carry this torch of emotion and comedy, so emblematic of the 18th century.

These Stabat maters represent a deep-rooted exploration of the solemnity of the sacred and the operatic aspect of musical writing, both in the sombre and plaintive tonality of F minor. Comparing these masterpieces, that of Antonio Vivaldi (1712) and that of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1736), allowing them to resonate in the acoustics of the Royal Chapel of the Château de Versailles, just as they could have been heard in the 18th century, inspires and awakens a desire for balance between internalised faith – spirituality, and externalised faith – splendour. Pergolesi's work was very popular in France. Given on the occasion of the feast of the Virgin, the Stabat mater dolorosa is based on a 13th century liturgical text by Jacopone da Todi, reintroduced by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727.