Pinchgut Opera’s midyear production takes us to the 17th-century court of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Louis XIV ruled France from 1643 to his death in 1715. During his reign, he expanded the Palace of Versailles from a humble hunting lodge into a lavish estate where he could entertain and, more importantly, keep a close eye on the powerbrokers of the aristocracy.

The Pleasures of Versailles, Pinchgut Opera, 2023. Photo © Cassandra Hannagan

The two tiny operas on offer here were designed to be performed in Louis’s private apartments, as a light entertainment after a hard day at court. They are, in the words of Artistic Director Erin Helyard, the 17th-century equivalent of Netflix and chill. But while the subject matter is anodyne and the plot twists are as predictable as they come, these two little mini-dramas have much to offer.

Les plaisirs de Versailles (The Pleasures of Versailles) takes a popular trope in French opera, the philosophical argument between reified phenomena such as Love and War, and turns it into a scurrilous dialogue. The protagonists are La Musique, a stately Lauren Lodge-Campbell, and La Conversation, the ebullient...