French song has been a constant with us since 2010: we will present Samuel Barber’s rare Mélodies passagères setting original French prose poems by Rainer Maria Rilke; a delightful group of mélodies by Chausson, Hahn, Beydts, Ravel and Poulenc devoted to birds (hummingbird, nightingale, dove, seagull); and finally, one of Natalie’s great specialities, Poulenc’s La Dame de MonteCarlo, on an admirable and poignant text by Jean Cocteau, which ends with a suicide. However, Natalie Dessay and I would like to reassure our loyal audience that we do not envisage resorting to that extremity ourselves, but will simply take our leave on a quiet final cadence, pianissimo amoroso in C major, after fifteen years of work and challenges, shared joys and doubts, concerts and travels, that have woven the finest fabric of an unwavering friendship.
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