Marie-Nicole Lemieux L’Heure exquise at La Monnaie

An immense and gentle relief seems to come down from the sky like an iridescent star, it is the perfect moment !’ (Verlaine). After a marvellous recital of music by Vivaldi last season, Marie-Nicole Lemieux is back with a programme devoted entirely to the French song, the ‘mélodie française’. In both these repertoires this Canadian contralto displays an exceptional range of tones and moods in her superb timbre, while every performance provides evidence of her dramatic talent and exceptional diction. For this recital, she takes us on a journey through a serie of french songs by Fauré, Koechlin, Hahn and Duparc, but also songs by Rachmaninov and Hugo Wolf. All demonstrate the subtle fusion of music and poetry at the very start of the 20th century.