Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy
Musical direction: Jean-Luc Impe
Jean-Luc Impe
Following a classical musical training, Jean-Luc Impe obtained a master's degree in musicology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles at an early age. He then devoted himself to playing the lute, working with Anthony Bailes and later with Yasunori Imamura at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Strasbourg. Soon specialising in basso continuo on the theorbo and archlute, he was regularly called upon by numerous orchestras, soloists and chamber music ensembles to take part in the production of operas, oratorios and passions.
Jean-Luc Impe has been a prizewinner in the ‘Jeunes Talents Astoria’ competition and the Y. Menuhin Foundation.
As a soloist, he has recorded for RTBF, German and Italian radio stations, and taken part in the activities of the ensembles Capilla Flamenca, Laudantes, le Secret des Muses, La Grande Écurie and la Chambre du Roy, both in Belgium and abroad (notably in Poland as a guest of the Krakow Academy). With the ensemble Il Cortegiano, he recorded a series of CDs of Italian music for EMS. With these ensembles, he frequently performs at the major baroque music festivals (Festival of Flanders, Festival of Utrecht, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Ambronay, Festival Estival de Paris, etc.).
In 1989, together with Catherine Daron, he founded the Compagnie des Menus-Plaisirs du Roy, with which he has collaborated on shows by Alain Carré and on an 18th-century opera for puppets. The ensemble is currently made up of musicians of international renown and a number of craftsmen and decorators, all of whom specialise in ancient theatrical machinery and techniques.
After staging a highly successful 18th-century comic opera for the wooden comedians of the Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent fairs in Paris, L'Ombre du Cocher-previously known as ‘L'Ombre du Cocher’ (The Shadow of the Coachman), the ensemble has gone on to become one of the world's leading opera companies: L'Ombre du Cocher-poète (The Shadow of the Poet-Coach), and his efforts to revive the parodies of operas and lyric tragedies (Atys travesti) that were legion in the Age of Enlightenment, Jean-Luc Impe, under the guidance of the most eminent specialists and with the constant support of the Watermael-Boistfort Cultural Centre, has taken a particular interest in the staging, gestures and French pronunciation of the 17th and 18th centuries. At the instigation of the Ambronay Festival and in collaboration with the Grande Écurie and the Chambre du Roy, under the direction of Jean-Claude Malgoire, Jean-Luc Impe staged Quinault and Lully's Alceste, which was presented for the first time since the 1739 revival, in its lyric tragedy version and, as a burlesque counterpoint, as was customary in the 18th century, in parodic form using puppets, actors and singers (staging : Yves Hunstadt).
Jean-Luc Impe is currently preparing a complete edition of the theatrical corpus devoted to wooden comedians in the Baroque period, as well as a doctoral thesis for the Université Libre de Bruxelles on the musicalisation of puppet plays in the first half of the Age of Enlightenment. The first results of his research were published by the Institut International de la Marionnette de Charleville-Mézières in September 1994. He taught at the Nice Conservatoire from 1997 to 2004, and currently gives lute lessons at a number of courses.
In 1997, the Ambronay Festival commissioned him to direct Persée, a lyric tragedy by Quinault and Lully, and, for the 20th anniversary of the Sablé Festival, he staged Mouret's Provençale and Favart and Duny's Fille mal gardée.
Arte and La Cinquième have devoted two themed evenings to him as part of the ‘Maestro’ programme. In 1998 he took up a residency at the Centre Dramatique Hainuyer, and in 1999 he co-produced a show with the Espace Senghor in Brussels on optical and magic lantern shows in the Age of Enlightenment. The year 2000 was devoted to the recreation of Louis Raibaud's Idylle de la Reine d'Espagne. In 2001 Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy and Jean-Luc Impe put together a fairground show based around l'Ecole des Amants by Niel and Fuzelier. Various universities and conservatoires (Paris, Evora, Limoges, Rome, Brussels, etc.) regularly call on Jean-Luc Impe's services for specialist colloquia or regular courses. In 2003 and 2004 he staged Esther by Racine and a parody of Roland by Quinault and Lully. The latter production was revived with the Théâtre Royal de Toone for the Festival du Printemps Baroque du Sablon 2005. For this edition of the Brussels festival, Jean-Luc Impe also acted as artistic advisor, reviving an 18th-century fair modelled on the Parisian fairs of Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent. Since this year, he has also been co-director of a university research team focusing on music in baroque theatres in Paris. As part of the activities of the Cellf (Sorbonne), he is collaborating on the edition of Lesage's complete works, to be published by Editions Champion.
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In 2006, Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy and the Concert Spirituel conducted by Hervé Niquet performed an original parody of Proserpine at the Cité de la Musique and the Château de Versailles. For the 2007-2008 season, in addition to the ensemble's concert activities, the focus is on a second parody of Cadmus and Hermione for the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. For 2009, he has put together a show bringing together the scenic and musical practice of ‘Nanguan’, the refined art of the cities of southern China, with the French air de cour, in vogue at the time of Louis XIII and Louis XIV.
Les Menus-Plaisirs, which he has directed since the ensemble was founded, is preparing a series of recordings of the vaudevilles and petits airs tendres of the Grand Siècle with soprano Céline Scheen (Parodies spirituelles et spiritualité en parodie / Musica ficta) and tenor Stéphan Van Dyck (Boismortier des villes et des champs / Musica ficta).
Since 2007, Jean-Luc Impe has also been the initiator of a European project to compile various musical databases on vaudevilles and popular songs in Europe. That same year, he was awarded a residency in France, at ‘La Villa d'Aubilly’, for his activities as a researcher and writer.
To mark the tercentenary of the birth of Favart, the Opéra-Comique in Paris commissioned Jean-Luc Impe to create a parody of Mouret's Provençale: La Fille mal gardée. Also at the Opéra-Comique, Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy revive W. Christie's production of Atys travesti. After recreating a magic lantern show based on La Tentation de Saint Antoine in 2014, Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy recorded a programme dedicated to Divertissements de Campagne by Joseph-Bodin de Boismortier the following year. Finally, in 2016, they will revive Scotland's first comic opera: The Gentle Shepherd, based on a libretto by A. Ramsay. Also in 2016, the company will stage a show on Freemasonry in the Age of Enlightenment, with the renewed support of the musicians of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roy and the Belgian Museum of Freemasonry. In 2017 Jean-Luc Impe and Paul Fustier, in co-production with Monuments de France, will publish a manuscript for hurdy-gurdy written for the inhabitants of the Château de Talcy around 1740. This publication will provide an opportunity to perform the music taken from the collection in concert and to organise a symposium on musical practices in the provinces.
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Also in 2017, Jean-Luc Impe took part in Marc Dugain's film ‘L'échange des princesses’, based on the historical novel by Chantal Thomas.
2018 will see the company resume and develop the magic lantern show based on T. Pedrini's travels to China, and offer audiences an important part of the music written by European missionaries in the Middle Kingdom during the Age of Enlightenment. The ‘Chinese divertissements’ played at the court of the Chinese emperor and copied by Father Amiot in the mid-eighteenth century will also be on the programme.
Finally, in 2019, the Menus-Plaisirs du Roy will present a small opera inspired by the Masonic tradition: Les Fra-Maçonnes (sic) by Poinsinet. The work will be enhanced by the presence of a magic lantern, a paper theatre... and accompanied by a German organ, a kind of barrel organ to which will be added harpsichord, viola, theorbo, traverso and singers.
In 2020... nothing or very little because of the health crisis. Fortunately, in 2021, the ‘Festin joyeux’ project, or Baroque cuisine in song, will give the ensemble a new lease of life, and for the occasion it has enlisted the help of some of the greatest specialists in the gastronomy of the Age of Enlightenment to prepare a series of short films for television. This long-term project, spanning the next three years, will take place at the magnificent Château de Lavaux Sainte-Anne.