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Baroque ensemble on period instruments Francis Colpron, artistic director |
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Seasons > 2001-02 Season > Concerts > Passions françaisesFriday May 31, 2002, 8:00 pm Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours400, rue Saint-Paul Est [métro Champ-de-Mars], Vieux-Montréal, Québec Cantatas by Clérambault, Campra, and Montéclair. Karina Gauvin, guest soprano. 
The cantata began as a secular Italian genre. It was usually written for a single voice and consisted of alternating recitatives and arias. Both gallant and elegiac poems were sung as cantatas, as were dramatic love stories about the Gods. Cantatas became popular in Parisian salons at the end of the 17th century and amateurs began asking for them. The French master composers responded, adapting the Italian cantata to the shapes of the French language. Their cantates françoises are like short scenes from operas, written in a style that is both precious and touching. Chaîne culturelle de Radio-Canada |