Lessons of Darkness with Baroque Music in Avignon – News
Musique Baroque en Avignon, in co-production with the Opéra Grand Avignon, presents Les Leçons de Ténèbres by François Couperin by Les Nouveaux Caractères under the musical direction of Sébastien d’Hérin
The Mozart Amphitheater of the Avignon Conservatory almost filled with attentive listening Sébastien d’Hérin to present and describe the program (but also to tell and recall the difficulties faced during the health crisis, this concert having thus been postponed for two years after the scheduled date, but finally arriving ahead of the Easter period to which the Lessons of Darkness are dedicated). He also presents his ensemble and specifies that the cellist Hager Hanana had to be replaced by Cécile Vérolles. In his company, Sébastien d’Hérin on the harpsichord and the small organ, as well as Martin Bauer on the viola da gamba show an obvious concentration and passion. By great skill, they offer the musical spectacle of momentum and emotion with the elegance and sensitivity of a very refined phrasing and a moving musical intention.
The soprano Caroline Mutel immediately asserts her presence on stage, and deploys her clear and round voice throughout the room. His deep look reaches to the last spectators as his voice transmits to the whole assembly his sound feeling. The broad voice is nevertheless easy in the vocalizations, even if it is refined there to the point of allowing itself to be sometimes covered by its colleague.
The mezzo-soprano Julie Robard-Gendre imposes with the power of her voice and her brassy but homogeneous timbre. Invested in her interpretation, she shows an underlined musicality, a delicate phrasing, delicious nuances and a penetrating expressiveness, thus carrying the public with her in her game. Her assured projection is very precise and agile in her vocalizations, all with a presence scenic and vocal not negligible.
The very enthusiastic public applauded the artists for a long time and called them back several times. The whole thus decides to offer him as an encore Jerusalem converter.