Louis XIV was a despot, of course, but at least he was a cultured despot, a one-man arts council spending huge amounts of his peasants’ taxes on entertainment (though, unlike our own dear arts council, he wasn’t quite so keen on diversity and inclusiveness). I won’t say “those were the days”, but you certainly feel the difference between then and now. To revive authentically the great operas and ballets written for the Sun King’s court at Versailles would require resources — dancers, singers, musicians, lavish costumes and dazzling stage effects — well beyond the resources that 21st-century Britain seems capable of mustering.
Though this concert by the Academy of Ancient Music couldn’t quite be described as the next best thing, it did convey some sense
