Le Cœur et la Raison (The Heart & The Mind)

Since the creation of their ensemble La Néréide in 2019, the three sopranos Camille Allérat, Julie Roset and Ana Vieira Leite have wanted to tell stories about women, women who are courageous, vulnerable, passionate, powerful, secretive — and sometimes all of these at once. Le Cœur et la Raison imagines the fate of a young noblewoman sent to the Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr, where she received a meticulous education, particularly in music; she took part in services and sang works by its organist Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749) — including his magnificent Miserere — and by Jean-François Lalouette (1651-1728), a pupil of Lully. When she returned to her family, however, she sang the melodies of fashionable court airs, which she then shared with her fellow students at Saint-Cyr, to the great disapproval of the religious authorities. She and her colleagues then rewrote the song texts transforming the declarations of love into statements of faith. Today, these three friends and artists present an emotionally charged programme, accompanied by a first-rate instrumental trio.

La Néréide
Camille Allérat
Julie Roset
Ana Vieira Leite

Miguel Henry – theorbo, lute
Salomé Gasselin – viola da gamba
Emmanuel Arakélian – organ