P A L A I S D E S S P O R T S
«Le Roi Soleil»: A king with true popstar qualities
What does the spectator expects when he visits a musical about the life of Louis XIV? Probably above all classic music and the original society dances of his era. And so some low-brow visitors may somehow be acoustically and optically surprised, when the basses boom and the E-guitar hammers through the déco à la Versailles, the ensemble rocks and breakdances during all girls in the audience fall ecstatically in a hysteric bawling when they see the main character on stage. Astonishment about such a modern production is however not recognisable in the faces of the natives. But with 800’000 sold records, several top-ten places in the charts and until today 1.5 million spectators since the première in September 2005, «Le Roi Soleil» is for natives truely anything else but no quiet tip anymore. Everyone (resp. every French!) knows the two most successful singles «Être à la hauteur» and «Tant qu’on rêve encore» inside out.
The story about the Sun King and his spendthrift life is a genius idea of the relatively unknown choreograph Kamel Ouali who is playing now already the second season in Paris. Torned between a bourgeoise love and courtly etiquette Louis XIV (Emmanuel Moire) fights for the power which her mother (Marie Lenoir) and cardinal Mazarin contest. To assert himself as king furthermore Louis goes into war. There his trace disappears and his brother (Christophe Maé – an unequalled singer and dancer talent) is crowned king in Reims without further ado. When Louis finally returns he recognises that only his big love Marie Mancini (Anne-Laure Girbal) worried about him. But a marriage is impossible – Marie is Italian. After Mazarin passed away Louis overtakes the complete rule over France and looks for diversion in building the castle of Versailles and several love affairs. But of course there is a happy-end: The king marrys the civil Françoise d’Aubigné (Cathialine Andria), the former gouvernante of his illegitimate children.
The observer asks himself the question what makes the fascination of such a dusty theme from the 17th century for the mostly young audience. The reasons for the unusual euphoria are the grandiose and happy production in the rhythm of our days: An attractive ensemble – consisting of a lot of beaus and belles –, the catchy live music (played alternately by two live bands), the extraordinary, creative choreography and probably also a little bit patriotism. Anyway, one thing is clear: «Le Roi Soleil» differs from the superficial, monotone argy-bargy of other musicals and offers very best entertainment. Louis XIV have made the leap into present effortlessly!
Résumé: A royally melodic rock opera with brilliant actors and real musical earcatchers. Until January 7th in Paris, from February 2nd on tour across France, Belgium and Switzerland!
► «Le Roi Soleil» in the season 2006/2007 at the Palais des Sports. With Emmanuel Moire, Christophe Maé, Anne-Laure Girbal, Cathialine Andria, Lysa Ansaldi, Merwan Rim, Victoria Petrosillo, Pierre Forest et al. Production and choreography: Kamel Ouali, music: Pierre Jaconelli, costums: Dominique Borg, stage design: Alain Lagarde ► Review:
«Cleopatra rocks the Porte de Versailles» (2009), «Visiting the coolest Mozart of all times» (2009). Further reviews at the review archives
«Le Roi Soleil»: A king with true popstar qualities
What does the spectator expects when he visits a musical about the life of Louis XIV? Probably above all classic music and the original society dances of his era. And so some low-brow visitors may somehow be acoustically and optically surprised, when the basses boom and the E-guitar hammers through the déco à la Versailles, the ensemble rocks and breakdances during all girls in the audience fall ecstatically in a hysteric bawling when they see the main character on stage. Astonishment about such a modern production is however not recognisable in the faces of the natives. But with 800’000 sold records, several top-ten places in the charts and until today 1.5 million spectators since the première in September 2005, «Le Roi Soleil» is for natives truely anything else but no quiet tip anymore. Everyone (resp. every French!) knows the two most successful singles «Être à la hauteur» and «Tant qu’on rêve encore» inside out.
The story about the Sun King and his spendthrift life is a genius idea of the relatively unknown choreograph Kamel Ouali who is playing now already the second season in Paris. Torned between a bourgeoise love and courtly etiquette Louis XIV (Emmanuel Moire) fights for the power which her mother (Marie Lenoir) and cardinal Mazarin contest. To assert himself as king furthermore Louis goes into war. There his trace disappears and his brother (Christophe Maé – an unequalled singer and dancer talent) is crowned king in Reims without further ado. When Louis finally returns he recognises that only his big love Marie Mancini (Anne-Laure Girbal) worried about him. But a marriage is impossible – Marie is Italian. After Mazarin passed away Louis overtakes the complete rule over France and looks for diversion in building the castle of Versailles and several love affairs. But of course there is a happy-end: The king marrys the civil Françoise d’Aubigné (Cathialine Andria), the former gouvernante of his illegitimate children.
The observer asks himself the question what makes the fascination of such a dusty theme from the 17th century for the mostly young audience. The reasons for the unusual euphoria are the grandiose and happy production in the rhythm of our days: An attractive ensemble – consisting of a lot of beaus and belles –, the catchy live music (played alternately by two live bands), the extraordinary, creative choreography and probably also a little bit patriotism. Anyway, one thing is clear: «Le Roi Soleil» differs from the superficial, monotone argy-bargy of other musicals and offers very best entertainment. Louis XIV have made the leap into present effortlessly!
Résumé: A royally melodic rock opera with brilliant actors and real musical earcatchers. Until January 7th in Paris, from February 2nd on tour across France, Belgium and Switzerland!
► «Le Roi Soleil» in the season 2006/2007 at the Palais des Sports. With Emmanuel Moire, Christophe Maé, Anne-Laure Girbal, Cathialine Andria, Lysa Ansaldi, Merwan Rim, Victoria Petrosillo, Pierre Forest et al. Production and choreography: Kamel Ouali, music: Pierre Jaconelli, costums: Dominique Borg, stage design: Alain Lagarde ► Review:
«Cleopatra rocks the Porte de Versailles» (2009), «Visiting the coolest Mozart of all times» (2009). Further reviews at the review archives
5 
breathtaking | 4 very nice | 3 entertaining | 2 disappointing | 1 bad
breathtaking | 4 very nice | 3 entertaining | 2 disappointing | 1 bad
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