Fouché - The Banquet & I SOLISTI / Jan Decleir & Marjan De Schutter

The unlikely but true life story of Joseph Fouché (1759-1820), the most unknown protagonist of the Franse Revolutie. Much has been written, sung, filmed, and told about that great revolution. Terwijl Robespierre, Marat, Napoleon, Danton, and Marie Antoinette filling the history books, Fouché always moved in their shadow. Nevertheless, he was at every moment at the center of the historical developments of his time. He changed sides like underwear: from one radical extreme to the other. He was a Catholic trainee priest in his young years, but then showed himself to be a ruthless slaughterer of anyone who had anything to do with the faith. He defected from the Girondins to the Jacobins, the two extremes within the revolutionary movement. He was a fanatical royalist and then again a militant anti-royalist. The once-radical revolutionary Fouché later became a minister in the service of Napoleon and ended his career as minister of police under King Louis XIII. Fouché’s life is full of blood-curdling plot twists. How is it that this man, who played such a decisive and bizarre role during one of the most turbulent periods of our history, has remained so unknown? Why is his exceptional story not told more often?