1880s 'Female Hysteria' Lectures Creatively Re-Enacted at Wigmore Hall by Héloïse Werner for International Women's Day

A series of controversial lectures on 'female hysteria' given in Paris in the 1880s by the leading French neurologist of his day will be creatively re-enacted in music by French-British soprano and composer Héloïse Werner on Wednesday 8 March, when she performs the world première of her new work Les Leçons du Mardi (Tuesday Lectures) with the Tippett String Quartet, at London's Wigmore Hall. The lunchtime performance is part of her day-long takeover of the venue marking International Women's Day.

Les Leçons du Mardi focuses on public demonstrations given by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, which featured women under his care acting out episodes of 'hysteria' in front of his students, peers and the Parisian public, including the young Sigmund Freud, who studied under Charcot for several months in 1885.

Héloïse Werner explains:

"Les Leçons du Mardi for soprano and string quartet is a creative take on the infamous 'Tuesday Lectures', once held at the Salpêtrière hospital in 19th-century Paris. Led by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, the lectures saw "hysterical" women, institutionalised at the Salpêtrière, forced to act out their symptoms before an eager Parisian public.

I collaborated with Dr Emma Werner, who wrote a libretto incorporating quotes from across several centuries about the now ridiculed concept of "female hysteria", to explore and highlight the variety of ways in which sexism has persisted in science and society throughout history."

Les Leçons du Mardi is co-commissioned by Wigmore Hall, supported by The Marchus Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Foundation. The lunchtime concert also features music by Caroline Shaw, Doreen Carwithen, Freya Waley-Cohen and Kate Whitley.

Héloïse Werner also performs a programme of new music by women composers with The Hermes Experiment, the contemporary ensemble of vocalist, harp, clarinet and double bass that she co-directs. They give the world première of Sylvia Lim's Kite (Dymchurch) alongside new works by Laura Moody, Josephine Stephenson, Freya Waley-Cohen, Errollyn Wallen and Ayanna Witter-Johnson.

With no existing music written for its idiosyncratic instrumental forces, The Hermes Experiment has created its own repertoire from scratch, with some 70 works commissioned from 60 composers over the past ten years. This gives the group a unique focus on performing only new music or its own inventive arrangements of existing works.

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