The daughter of a luthier sings while watching her father work. It all begins this way, she is noticed by a composer and will find herself in Versailles. There she discovers a court where intrigues, poisons, and betrayals are the daily lot of these idle courtiers who despise each other.
Unfortunately for her, she catches the attention of the king and the two most influential women in the Palace of Versailles, Montespan and Maintenon, who use her to achieve their own ends. Émilie becomes a pawn in their hands.
Lully wants to compose an opera for her, igniting two new rivalries between Charpentier and Lully, each backed by their own parties at court. Susanne Dunlap describes this French court as completely disconnected from reality and the common people. Although Paris is not far from Versailles, an unbridgeable gap separates the two cities. Access to the court is a privilege.
Woe to those who are excluded; it takes very little to displease the whims of the king and his favorites, two women divided by everything: one the mistress of Louis XIV, and the pious widow Scarron who aims to save the king’s soul. Émilie finds herself as a piece in a game where she has nothing to gain, regardless of the outcome. A vivid depiction of this late 17th-century society where hypocrisy was the rule.
Thierry Jan, writer
