Songs

From 1630 to 1690, what was happening in England? 

While Italy gave birth to a new genre, the opera, which was about to take Continental Europe by storm,  another form of increasingly dramatic vocal art flourished on the other side of the Channel: songs. Alongside the advances made by the Italians Caccini and Monteverdi, a new type of accompanied monody developed in 17^thcentury England, whose insularity – both in terms of geography and character! – has no like elsewhere in the world. While John Dowland clearly dominated the first half of the century, the musical revolution that followed his death in 1626 with the creation of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneasat the end of 1689 remains today as fascinating as it is misunderstood. It is this exhilarating transition period that Sébastien Daucé and his ensemble Correspondances have chosen to examine in their new stage show. Conceived for the voice of Lucile Richardot — who opened from several metres in height the Royal Ballet of the Night— this  musical flowering, where melancholy remains an omnipresent and specifically English ingredient, benefits from rich dramaturgy and staging by Samuel Achache, in the form of a bitter-sweet voyage through the heart and mind of a woman in love.