‘a nocte temporis’

Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre was a child prodigy. She was only five years old when she played at the court of the Sun King, and grew into a talented composer. Today she is best known for her harpsichord music and cantatas, but she has also composed an opera Céphale et Procris, loosely based on a myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses. In de La Guerre's version, the tender love affair between Céphale and Procris is shattered by the jealous goddess Aurora. De La Guerre wrote a true masterpiece, and it is also the first French opera written by a woman. As Baroque defenders of the French repertoire, Reinoud Van Mechelen and his a nocte temporis are the dream performers to breathe new life into this masterpiece. For this large-scale production, he surrounded himself with several talented Belgian singers.