Les plaisirs de Versailles Les plaisirs de Versailles Les plaisirs de Versailles (English: "The Pleasures of Versailles") is a short opera (or "divertissement") by the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It was intended for performance at the new courtly entertainment known as "les appartements du roi" ("the king's receptions") devised by King Louis XIV and held in his own apartments at the palace of Versailles in 1682. At the time, Charpentier was composer for Louis, "le Grand Dauphin", the king's son. The librettist is unknown. Most of the characters represent the pleasures enjoyed at Versailles: "La Musique" (Music), "La Conversation" (Conversation), "Le Jeu" (Gambling), Comus
Palace of Versailles which had departed Paris during the War for Tours and then Bordeaux, moved into the Palace. The National Assembly held its meetings in the Opera House. The uprising of the Paris Commune in May, 1871, prevented the French government, under Adolphe Thiers, from returning immediately to Paris. The military operation which suppressed the Commune at the end of the month was directed from Versailles, and the prisoners of the Commune were marched there and put on trial in military courts. In 1875 a second parliamentary body, the French Senate, was created, and held its meetings for the election of a