Easter Festival - Meditatio - Concert - Reading

ROBIN RENUCCI narrator & BENOÎT DUMON organ
after Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Meditations for Lent
This performance offers a mirror image of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's ten Lenten Meditations and French mystical poetry. Magnificent texts by Malherbe, Lacépède, Hugo, Lamartine, Verlaine and Claudel paraphrase ten Passion scenes that Charpentier illustrates in music. The themes of these ten Meditations follow the chronological progression of the Passion: Desolation of the world, Prayer of the sinner, Jesus announcing his imminent death to his disciples, Betrayal of Judas, Denial of Peter, Jesus presented to Pilate, Death of Jesus, Lamentation of the Virgin, Lamentation de Madeleine and Sacrifice d'Isaac, and Charpentier achieves the impossible alliance of the sobriety imposed by Lent with a Baroque style teeming with inventiveness, the alliance of the heritage of the Renaissance with the creative madness of his time, of Italian ardour with French elegance.
Robin Renucci reciting
Benoît Dumon organ
François Isserel-Savary countertenor
Jérôme Cottenceau waist
Jean-Christophe Filiol bass
Anne-Garance Fabre-Garrus viola da gamba