This is my nomination for the world’s most beautiful concert venue, the 13th century Sainte-Chapelle on the Île de la Cité in the center of Paris.
On many evenings there are two one-hour concerts here, the first at 19:00 (7.00 pm) and the second at 20:30 (8.30 pm). I chose the first concert in hopes that there would still be ample sunlight shining through the amazing stained-glass windows (which there was).
When I went in 2008, my ticket cost € 25, plus a commission because I bought it ahead of time at one of the fnac stores. As of 2020, tickets to these concerts cost 40 Euros each. This is not cheap for a sixty-minute concert (you can see an entire opera in Paris for less than that), but perhaps still worth it, considering you can sit for an hour in this fantastically beautiful Gothic building listening to brilliant music played by soloists from the leading French orchestras.
Musicians from l’Orchestre Les Archets de Paris
The chamber music concert I attended at the Sainte-Chapelle was by the Orchestre Les Archets de Paris, a chamber music ensemble that was founded in 1992, composed mainly of solo musicians from the National Orchestra of the Paris Opera or the National Orchestra of France. Their program started with two short pieces by Vitali (1644-1692) and J. Pachelbel (1653-1706), followed by the complete “Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741).
As I have mentioned elsewhere, Vivaldi’s concerto “The Four Seasons” from the year 1723 is a staple of tourist concerts all over Europe, and I think for some of the musicians it must get quite stale after a while. I’m sure Vivaldi himself would have been astounded if he had known that his “Four Seasons” would still be so popular three centuries after he wrote it, while his many operas and choral works remain in relative obscurity.
Here in Paris, as in a concert I had attended in Verona two years before, they at least played “The Four Seasons” in its entirety, all four movements, not just one or one-and-a-half as in the daily tourist concerts in Prague, Vienna or Salzburg.
Like his close contemporary Georg Friedrich Händel, Vivaldi was not only a composer but also an opera impresario. He claimed to have composed 94 operas, but only 46 have been identified and only 20 are still extant, at least in part. I have only seen one of his operas so far, Orlando Furioso, in two different productions: first in Darmstadt in 2002 in a staging by Rosamund Gilmore (with lots of dancing, as in all her productions), and later in Frankfurt as staged by David Bösch in 2010 and revived in 2014. Both of these were colorful productions with energetic young casts.
Christophe Guiot autographing CD-booklets
After the concert at the Sainte-Chapelle, the conductor and violin soloist Christophe Guiot came to the back of the chapel to sign CD booklets.
Queue at Sainte-Chapelle during the daytime
Another advantage of attending an evening concert is that you can have a good look at the inside of the Sainte-Chapelle without waiting in the long queue that tends to form during the day.
Unfortunately, your Museum Pass will not speed up your entry to the Sainte-Chapelle because there is only one line — and a sign in French politely asking Museum Pass holders to se patienter in the same queue along with everybody else.
Location and aerial view of the Sainte-Chapelle on monumentum.fr.
My photos in this post are from 2008. I revised the text in 2020.
See more posts on the Island of the Cité in Paris.
See more posts on concert venues in European cities.
What a beautiful place to listen to music! We were fortunate enough to visit this chapel a decade ago. I thought it was wonderful. Have you visited Spain? It looks like the opera houses in Sevilla, Barcelona and Valencia are quite beautiful. I haven’t visited them yet, however. : ) Rebecca
Thanks for your visit and comment. Yes, I have visited Spain several times (including a four-month bicycle tour in the winter of 1962/63) but I have never been to an opera there.
My pleasure. The four month bicycle tour of Spain sounds great. Which regions did you visit?
My route was Barcelona – Valencia – Alicante – Murcia – Granada – Malaga – Marbella – Gibraltar – (Morocco) – Cadiz – Jerez – Sevilla – Huelva – (Portugal) – Salamanca – Avila – El Escorial – Madrid – Zaragoza – Barcelona.
That was an amazing tour! You saw every city I did (by bus and train) and more. Must have been an incredible cycling journey!
It really was nice, except for a few rainy weeks. I’m only sorry I missed Córdoba and Galicia (still haven’t been there).
How wonderful for folks to be able to enjoy concerts in such a special setting . The setting does help bring the music out, apart from the acoustics.
Enjoy a lovely Christmas.
Thanks for your visit and nice comment. Best wishes for safe and pleasant holidays.
Thank you Don and I wish the same for you, happy holidays.
There are so many wonderful French composers. I wonder why they don’t use them? Can you imagine the Fauré Requiem in Ste. Chapelle? Wow . . .
Love Ste. Chapelle. I was stunned by the ground floor the first time we visited. Everyone talks about the gorgeous stained glass and it is; however, the painting on the walls downstairs is also spectacular. I’d love to go to a concert there but would prefer a modern string quartet. A Debussy string quartet would be marvelous in such a very French space.
Currently there are no concerts because of corona, but they have (perhaps over-optimistically) announced concerts for December 19-31: Mainly Vivaldi and Johann Strauss, a bit of Bach, Purcell and Corelli and a few Christmas songs — but not a single French composer.
Sainte Chapelle is such a wonderful jewel box — really exquisite. I would love to hear a concert there some day!
A truly beautiful place which I loved when I visited and one of my fondest memories from Paris. I am glad the acoustics are up to making it a great concert venue.
What a beautiful place to enjoy beautiful music! La Sainte Chapelle is already stunning for the eyes, but to enhance it with the ears definitely creates a wholesome experience for the senses. Would love to go back to do so for myself! <3
Lovely post and I must confess to still getting excited when I hear The Four Seasons! Katie
My granddaughter would have loved this. I agree it would make a supremely beautiful place for a concert
We didn’t have to stand in line at Ste Chappelle because I went in the handicapped entrance
What a wonderful place for a concert! Last time we were in Paris we went in the Sainte Chappelle and only had to queue about 10 minutes or so, despite the line looking quite long when we joined it 🙂