La Belette dans le Grenier

This programme for all the family is based on popular French songs of the 18th century. The repertoire of these songs is a veritable ‘mille-feuille’ of astonishing richness and profusion.

The melodies that we all remember, such as ‘J’ai du bon tabac’, ‘Malbrough’ or one of the first versions of ‘À la claire fontaine’, come from a wide variety of sources, as do other lesser-known songs that are just as lively and uplifting, Margoton va a l’iau‘ – a dance song -, “Je suis Madelon Friquet” or “La queue du chat” (’Tambourin”) show that these melodies, often linked to dancing and/or borrowed from well-known composers such as Campra or Rameau, were used to support a variety of lyrics. The famous Fables de la Fontaine, such as ‘Le loup et l’agneau’ (The wolf and the lamb) or ‘La belette dans le grenier’ (The weasel in the attic) are set to these old melodies, known as ‘timbres’.

Concertos comiques by Michel Corrette and arias from contredanses, served up by skilfully coloured instrumentation, provide pleasant interludes to the songs performed by the children of the Maîtrise de Caen. François Lazarevitch and his Musiciens de Saint-Julien have invited conductor Olivier Opdebeeck and his choir to revive the spirit of joy and naturalness that has already appealed to a wide audience with the discs ‘Noël baroque’ and ‘À l’ombre d’un ormeau’.

Concert
Duration 1h20

Maîtrise de Caen
Olivier Opdebeeck: choir director
8 to 24 choir members
Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien
François Lazarevitch: conductor, flutes & musettes
Josef Zak and Liv Heim: violins
Grégory Jolivet: hurdy-gurdy
Garance Boizot: viola da gamba
Éric Bellocq: archlute, guitar

Production
In collaboration with the Maîtrise de Caen and the Théâtre de Caen.