Sweet spring songs

The Dijon Opera Choir closes a spring spent on the musical paths of sweet Albion. Perhaps the most beloved score for a capellachoir could well be theHymn to Saint Cecilia, which Benjamin Britten composed at the start of the 1940s. It is a work that, despite its brevity, is one of the most scintillating successes of the British composer, for whom it held a triple significance. With it, he celebrated his own saint’s day – he was born on the day of Saint Cecilia – and that of all musicians, for whom she is the patron saint. With it, he also entered the rich ancestral English tradition. Rarer, more intimate, and intensely poetic, the five Flower Songs of 1951 explore the secret metaphors that flowers evoke in the human soul. Around these two exceptional scores, we will be treated to a bouquet of other spring poesies that illustrate a whole, unknown and fascinating aspect of the great English composers.