Drag, decadence and drama as Versailles orchestra brings 17th-century scandal ‘Affair of the Poisons' to New York debut
Monday's immersive show Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons centred on France's 17th-century period of excess and seediness that its creator, Andrew Ousley, told AFP has parallels to the present day.
At the evening staged in Manhattan's new Printemps luxury emporium, guests and performers alike donned velvet waistcoats, silky corsets, feathered headdresses and powdered makeup.
Artists perform as guests attend a show called 'Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons.' at the Printemps store in Lower Manhattan, New York City on July 21, 2025. At the evening staged in Manhattan's new Printemps luxury emporium, which opened in March on Wall Street, guests and performers alike donned velvet waistcoats, silky corsets, feathered headdresses and powdery makeup. — AFP pic
Core to the performance's tale was the discovery of arsenic, Ousley said — the first 'untraceable, untastable poison.'
'Everybody was just poisoning everybody.'
And at the web's centre? A midwife and fortune teller named La Voisin, he said, a 'shadowy-like person who basically would peddle poison, peddle solutions, peddle snake oil.'
'She was the nexus,' Ousley continued, in a scheme that 'extended up to Louis XIV, his favourite mistresses' — inner circles rife with backstabbing and murder plots.
The poisoning scandal resulted in a tribunal that resulted in dozens of death sentences — until the king called it off when it 'got a little too close to home,' Ousley said with a smile.
'To me, it speaks to the present moment — that this rot can fester underneath luxury and wealth when it's divorced from empathy, from humanity.'
Along with a programme of classical music, the performance included elaborately costumed dancers, including one who tip-toed atop a line of wine bottles in sparkling platform heels.
The drag opera artist Creatine Price was the celebrant of the evening's so-called 'Black Mass,' and told AFP that the night was 'a beautiful way to sort of incorporate the ridiculousness, the campness, the farce of Versailles with a modern edge.'
Drag is 'resistance,' she said, adding that her act is 'the essence of speaking truth to power, because it really flies in the face of everything in the opera that is standard, whether it's about gender or voice type.'
Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra during a show called 'Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons.' at the Printemps store in Lower Manhattan, New York City July 21, 2025. — AFP pic
Period instruments
The Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra formed in 2019, and its first stateside tour is underway: the series of shows kicked off at Festival Napa Valley in California before heading to New York.
On Wednesday, it will play another, more traditional show at L'Alliance New York, a French cultural centre in Manhattan.
The orchestra aims to champion repertoire primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries, and plays on period instruments.
'Playing a historical instrument really gives me a feeling of being in contact with the era in which the music was composed,' said Alexandre Fauroux, who plays the natural horn, a predecessor to the French horn distinguished by its lack of valves.
Ousley runs the organisation Death of Classical, an arts non-profit that puts on classical shows in unexpected places, including the catacombs of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery and crypts in Manhattan.
Madame Athenais de Montespan played by Erin Dillon performs during a show called 'Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons.' at the Printemps store in Lower Manhattan, New York City on July 21, 2025. The immersive show 'The Affair of the Poisons' centred on France's 17th-century period of excess and seediness that its creator, Andrew Ousley, told AFP has parallels to the present day. — AFP pic
Monday's spectacle included over-the-top performance, but Ousley emphasised that the evening was ultimately a celebration of classical artists.
'These are players who play with such energy, to me it's more like a rock band than an orchestra,' he said.
And the mission of putting on such shows is about something bigger, Ousley said: 'How do you fight against the darkness that seems to be winning in the world?'
'When you can sit and feel, with a group of strangers, something that you know you feel together — that's why I work, because of that shared connection, experience and transcendence.' — AFP
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Malay Mail
a day ago
- Malay Mail
Drag, decadence and drama as Versailles orchestra brings 17th-century scandal ‘Affair of the Poisons' to New York debut
NEW YORK, July 24 — Acrobatics, fortune tellers, opulent gowns and palace intrigue: the New York debut of the Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra was a performance befitting the era it recalls. Monday's immersive show Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons centred on France's 17th-century period of excess and seediness that its creator, Andrew Ousley, told AFP has parallels to the present day. At the evening staged in Manhattan's new Printemps luxury emporium, guests and performers alike donned velvet waistcoats, silky corsets, feathered headdresses and powdered makeup. Artists perform as guests attend a show called 'Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons.' at the Printemps store in Lower Manhattan, New York City on July 21, 2025. At the evening staged in Manhattan's new Printemps luxury emporium, which opened in March on Wall Street, guests and performers alike donned velvet waistcoats, silky corsets, feathered headdresses and powdery makeup. — AFP pic Core to the performance's tale was the discovery of arsenic, Ousley said — the first 'untraceable, untastable poison.' 'Everybody was just poisoning everybody.' And at the web's centre? A midwife and fortune teller named La Voisin, he said, a 'shadowy-like person who basically would peddle poison, peddle solutions, peddle snake oil.' 'She was the nexus,' Ousley continued, in a scheme that 'extended up to Louis XIV, his favourite mistresses' — inner circles rife with backstabbing and murder plots. The poisoning scandal resulted in a tribunal that resulted in dozens of death sentences — until the king called it off when it 'got a little too close to home,' Ousley said with a smile. 'To me, it speaks to the present moment — that this rot can fester underneath luxury and wealth when it's divorced from empathy, from humanity.' Along with a programme of classical music, the performance included elaborately costumed dancers, including one who tip-toed atop a line of wine bottles in sparkling platform heels. The drag opera artist Creatine Price was the celebrant of the evening's so-called 'Black Mass,' and told AFP that the night was 'a beautiful way to sort of incorporate the ridiculousness, the campness, the farce of Versailles with a modern edge.' Drag is 'resistance,' she said, adding that her act is 'the essence of speaking truth to power, because it really flies in the face of everything in the opera that is standard, whether it's about gender or voice type.' Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra during a show called 'Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons.' at the Printemps store in Lower Manhattan, New York City July 21, 2025. — AFP pic Period instruments The Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra formed in 2019, and its first stateside tour is underway: the series of shows kicked off at Festival Napa Valley in California before heading to New York. On Wednesday, it will play another, more traditional show at L'Alliance New York, a French cultural centre in Manhattan. The orchestra aims to champion repertoire primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries, and plays on period instruments. 'Playing a historical instrument really gives me a feeling of being in contact with the era in which the music was composed,' said Alexandre Fauroux, who plays the natural horn, a predecessor to the French horn distinguished by its lack of valves. Ousley runs the organisation Death of Classical, an arts non-profit that puts on classical shows in unexpected places, including the catacombs of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery and crypts in Manhattan. Madame Athenais de Montespan played by Erin Dillon performs during a show called 'Versailles in Printemps: The Affair of the Poisons.' at the Printemps store in Lower Manhattan, New York City on July 21, 2025. The immersive show 'The Affair of the Poisons' centred on France's 17th-century period of excess and seediness that its creator, Andrew Ousley, told AFP has parallels to the present day. — AFP pic Monday's spectacle included over-the-top performance, but Ousley emphasised that the evening was ultimately a celebration of classical artists. 'These are players who play with such energy, to me it's more like a rock band than an orchestra,' he said. And the mission of putting on such shows is about something bigger, Ousley said: 'How do you fight against the darkness that seems to be winning in the world?' 'When you can sit and feel, with a group of strangers, something that you know you feel together — that's why I work, because of that shared connection, experience and transcendence.' — AFP
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Malay Mail
‘Star Wars' creator George Lucas to hit US Comic-Con for first time
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Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Malay Mail
‘Eat the rich': Why horror films are taking aim at the ultra-wealthy
This story contains spoilers about Ready or Not and The Menu. LOS ANGELES, July 24 — When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sánchez held their lavish three-day wedding celebration in Venice recently, it wasn't just a party — it was a spectacle of wealth, reportedly costing between US$47 million (RM198.6 million) and US$56 million. Critics highlighted the environmental toll of such an event on the fragile, flood-prone city, while protesters took to the streets to condemn the wedding as a tone-deaf symbol of oligarchical wealth at a time when many can't afford to pay rent, let alone rent an island. The excessive show of opulence felt like the opening of a horror film, and lately, that's exactly what horror has been giving us. In films like Ready or Not (2019) and The Menu (2022), the rich aren't simply out of touch; they're portrayed as predators, criminals or even monsters. These 'eat-the-rich' films channel widespread anxieties about the current socioeconomic climate and increasing disillusionment with capitalist systems. In a world where the wealthy and powerful often seem to act with impunity, these films expose upper-class immorality and entitlement, and offer revenge fantasies where those normally crushed by the system fight back or burn it all down. Horror takes aim at the wealthy Originally a quote from social theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau during the French Revolution, 'eat the rich' has re-emerged in recent years in public protests and on social media in response to increasing socioeconomic inequality. In cinema, eat-the-rich films often use grotesque hyperbole or satire to reveal and critique capitalist systems and the behaviours of the wealthy elite. Film scholar Robin Wood argues that horror films enact a return of what is repressed by dominant bourgeois — that is, capitalist — ideology, typically embodied by the figure of the monster. He cites The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), a classic example of anti-capitalist sentiment in horror that depicts Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and his working-class family as monstrous victims of the 1970s industrial collapse. Rather than accept repression, they return as cannibalistic monsters, making visible the brutality of capitalist systems that exploit and degrade people like obsolete commodities. But in eat-the-rich horror, it is the wealthy themselves who become the monsters. The locus of repression becomes their privilege, which is often built on exploitation, inequality and invisible or normalised forms of harm. These films render these abstract systems tangible by making the elite's monstrosity visible, literal and grotesque. Revenge horror for the 99 per cent Recent horror films are increasingly using genre conventions to critique wealth, privilege and the systems that sustain them. Ready or Not turns the rich into bloodthirsty monsters who maintain their fortune through satanic rituals and human sacrifice. Grace (Samara Weaving) marries into the Le Domas family, board game magnates who initiate new family members with a deadly game of hide-and-seek. She must survive until dawn while her new in-laws hunt her down to fulfil a demonic pact. The film critiques the idea of inherited wealth as something earned or honourable, combining humour and horror to reflect anxieties about class entrenchment and the moral decay of the elite. The Le Domases are monstrous not only for their violence, but for how casually they justify it. When several maids are accidentally killed in the chaos, they react with self-pity, indifferent to who must be sacrificed to maintain their wealth. In The Menu, the rich are portrayed as monstrous not through physical violence, but through their moral failings — like financial crimes and infidelity — and their hollow consumption of culture. Celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) lures wealthy foodies to his exclusive island restaurant, using food as a weaponised form of art to expose guests' hypocrisy and misdeeds. In one scene, guests are served tortillas laser-printed with incriminating images, such as banking records and evidence of fraudulent activity. The film criticises consumption in an industry where food is no longer a source of enjoyment or sustenance, but a status symbol for the elite to display their wealth and taste. Why these films are striking a nerve now It's no surprise that audiences are turning to horror to make sense of systems that feel increasingly bleak and inescapable. In Canada, the cost of living continues to outpace wages, housing affordability remains an issue for many, while grocery prices are a source of horror in their own right. A university degree, once considered a reliable path to stability, no longer guarantees the financial security of a salaried job. Many Canadians now rely on gig economy jobs as supplementary income. Meanwhile, the wealth gap is increasing and obscene displays of wealth — like a multi-million-dollar wedding — can feel disconnected, even offensive, to people experiencing financial precarity. Eat-the-rich films tap into this collective sense of injustice, transforming economic and social anxieties into a cathartic spectacle where ultra-wealthy villains are held accountable for their actions. At the end of Ready or Not, the members of the Le Domas family explode one by one and their mansion burns down. In The Menu, the guests are dressed up like s'mores and immolated. In both films, fire serves as a symbolic cleansing of the wealthy, their power and the systems that protect them. More than that, these films provide someone to root for: working-class protagonists who are targeted by the elite but ultimately survive. Former foster child Grace fights her way through a pack of murderous millionaires, while escort Margot/Erin (Anya Taylor-Joy) is spared when she rejects the pretentiousness of fine dining and orders a humble cheeseburger instead. In this way, horror becomes a form of narrative resistance, illustrating class rage through characters who refuse to be consumed by the systems trying to oppress them. While inequality and exploitation persist in reality, eat-the-rich films offer escape, and even justice, on screen. — Reuters
