4: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous
Charpentier composed one of his most elevated and intense Tenebrae settings for the nuns of the convent of Abbay-aux-Bois. In the same year he also provided the music for one of Paris's great box-office hits, Les
Fous Divertissants - a play set in a lunatic asylum. One wonders what the nuns would have made of this commedia-style romp, in which the inmates sing nonsense songs, swear hysterically and create pandemonium. Plus the denouement of the opera Medee, which sees the murderous enchantress exit stage right on a fire-breathing dragon.