The Tempest

A profoundly modern dimension emerges from this confrontation between English works from the 17th century (Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke) and works from the 20th and 21st centuries (Philippe Hersant, Franck Martin, Thierry Pécou). Coming from highly different musical universes, each composition is, however, largely inspired by the founding themes of Shakespeare’s play, sometimes taking up excerpts from it.

The text is recited in English, or rather Shakespeare’s ‘Old English’, as are all the sung parts, in order to reproduce the strong, sweet accent of that tongue.