THE CULTURE SHOW

WATTEAU REVISITED

Jean-Antoine Watteau is best remembered as a painter of the fête galante – dreamlike compositions of depictions of aristocrats at play in the outdoors. Almost a third of Watteau’s works feature musicians. We look at his La Leçon de musique, Les Charmes de la vie and Le Mezzetin of Commedia dell'Arte fame which inspired Debussy’s Masques. Many of Watteau’s musicians played either the guitar or theorbo and we’ll hear Les folies d’Espagne by Marin Marais arranged for guitar, and Robert de Visée’s Suite in C minor for the strange, but enchanting theorbo.