Son of the Sun

The Sun King – the greatest king France has ever known (1638 – 1715) - actually ordered 141 (!) operas in which he usually wanted to dance the lead role himself. His golden palace and his gardens full of golden fountains had to be full of music from early morning until late at night: sun music. He was, after all, the son of the sun himself, a "dancing sunbeam". Baroque music flourished. It was invented right there on the spot, in the middle of the gardens, on the waters, and in the theaters of Parijsen Versailles. Imagine: you are Lully – Jean-Baptiste Lully – until recently the favorite composer of the Sun King himself. Once you were just a child of the mill, then suddenly and unexpectedly a wizard with notes and machines and golden stories for the Sun King lui-même. Now you are sitting, hidden under the stage. Between the ropes and the wooden gears that set everything in motion. Flying and dancing: above you. The rotten floor below you. Musicians walk back and forth with harpsichords and timpani, majestic set pieces appear and disappear, wonderful sounds of the most beautiful music ever written for a king resound. By you ... But the king has dropped you. You came too close to the sun and you burned yourself. Are you the son of the sun? Or is that sun just the son of you? You wrote for him, after all, all those ballets and music that he could shine and radiate on. Zoon van de Zon is a crazy ride full of fresh music, inspired by the comic and epic operas at the court of Versailles in the 17th century. Top-class actor and singer Dries Vanhegen plays the pants off his legs as Lully – court composer of the Sun King, Elisabeth De Loore plays the harpsichord, and opera singers Pieter De Praetere and Lucas Cortoos sing and play their souls out to get to those 141 operas that the king wants. But then the real, creepy consequences of too much power seep in... who wins, the sun or the devil?... A new music+theater performance by BRODER for 8+. About rulers with too much power and a playful excess of wild baroque. Through the story of the Sun King, the performance tells something about beautiful appearances. About the glamour of wigs, perfumes, and peeling gold leaf on the front, but sometimes ugly stinking at the back. Can extreme power provide extreme amounts of art? And does that art then serve the power? May one Sun King do what he wants, as long as it produces beauty? But also: the applause! The delight at the spectacle! About the value and beauty of great art to make life more bearable and cheerful, even if it is in your imagination.