For the Bedroom

‘All of human misfortune comes from not knowing how to use the bedroom for rest’, wrote Pascal. I felt like contradicting the philosopher – bedrooms are places of rest! The most intimate instruments, such as the viola da gamba, the lute and theorbo, have long found their home there. It is also where Purcell, Sainte-Colombe, Duphly and Kapsberger set their lively works.

In the baroque bedroom people entertained, chatted in hallways, socialised. This is where chamber music was born, as illustrated by a page of Schumann and Enrique Granados’ bewitching quintet. If the bedroom is the antechamber of sleep, such as that of Renaud in Lully’s Armide, it can also take on more universal dimensions, sheltering lovers under its night sheet. Just think of the ecstasy of Verdi’s lovers in Otello.

Here we have an echo chamber dreamt of by Monteverdi, where the great loves of Trenet, Ferré, Manset and Biolay are written, and it is in this room that we cry with Depeche Mode. A mystical Debussy and De Falla with Nights in the Gardens of Spain invite us. Good night to you all on your pillow of dreams...