If the problem of organizing music for your Christmas party seems daunting, take a page from the book of the 17th century Duchesse de Guise and commission your own — or simply throw the products of ...

The vengeful gods of ancient Greece devised devilishly clever punishments. The hunter Actaeon found that out when he glimpsed Artemis bathing in a pool. The goddess, her chastity offended, transformed ...

On Thursday night, those of us who have never attended Christmas services in 1690s Paris got a transfixing taste of the musical side at least, when William Christie and Les Arts Florissants paid one ...

The descent of Orpheus into the underworld, a familiar subject taken from Ovid and celebrating the power of music, was turned into a two-act opera around 1686-7 by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, better ...

Lucie Skeaping explores music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, who wrote arguably some of the most engaging Christmas music of the French baroque, including the Messe de Minuit. Show more Lucie Skeaping's ...

Overshadowed in the late 17th century by his politically skilful contemporary Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier is now escaping from his long shadow: the recent tremendous ENO production of his Medea ...

What we call baroque music the French, in their inscrutable way, call classique. Never mind that French music of the baroque period is far more decorative, more encrusted with ornamentation, than ...

Marc-Antoine Charpentier is Donald Macleod's featured composer this week. It’s just a case of bad timing for 17th-century French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier that he happened to be born a decade ...