Musical Jokes

01.07 MUSICAL JOKES Nicolas Achten / direction Marc-Antoine Charpentier Actéon. Pastoral in music, H. 481 Major composer of 17th-century French music, Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote several lyrical works inspired by mythology. Actéon is a short dramatic pastoral composed around 1684. The work tells how the hunter, having surprised the goddess bathing, is transformed into a stag and then devoured by his own dogs. Through expressive and refined writing, Charpentier sets to music all the tragic force of this mythological tale.