La Comédie Humaine: Chansons balzaciennes Les Lunaisiens, Jérôme Varnier, Lucile Richardot, Cyrille Dubois & Arnaud Marzorati

• Marc-Antoine-Madeleine Désaugiers (1772 - 1827): Tableau de Paris:
• 1 Désaugiers: Tableau de Paris: Cinq heures du matin 02:00
• Pierre Dupont (1870 - 1954): Le Livre:
• 2 Dupont: Le Livre 05:24
• Emile Debraux (1796 - 1831): Les Relieurs:
• 3 Debraux: Les Relieurs 03:52
• Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782 - 1871): Amours et Folie:
• 4 Auber: Amours et Folie 05:00
• Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780 - 1857): Le Corps et l'Ame:
• 5 Béranger: Le Corps et l'Ame 04:59
• Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755 - 1826): Ne poursuivons plus la gloire:
• 6 Brillat-Savarin: Ne poursuivons plus la gloire 02:43
• Emile Debraux: Les Chapeaux:
• 7 Debraux: Les Chapeaux 02:44
• Pierre-Jean de Béranger: Les Escargots:
• 8 Béranger: Les Escargots 03:18
• Pierre Dupont: Les Louis d'Or:
• 9 Dupont: Les Louis d'Or 05:41
• Pierre-Jean de Béranger: L'Or:
• 10 Béranger: L'Or 04:19
• Marc-Antoine-Madeleine Désaugiers: Cadet Buteux au Faubourg du Temple:
• 11 Désaugiers: Cadet Buteux au Faubourg du Temple 02:49
• Eugène-François Vidocq (1775 - 1857): Chanson:
• 12 Vidocq: Chanson 03:55
• Alexandre Pierre Joseph Doche (1799 - 1849): Madame Barbe Bleue:
• 13 Doche: Madame Barbe Bleue 04:06
• Pierre-Jean de Béranger: Les Quatre Ages Historiques:
• 14 Béranger: Les Quatre Ages Historiques 04:22
• Ma Grand-Mère:
• 15 Béranger: Ma Grand-Mère 04:35
• Marc-Antoine-Madeleine Désaugiers: Tableau de Paris à cinq heures du soir:
• 16 Désaugiers: Tableau de Paris à cinq heures du soir: Conclusion 03:24
• Total Runtime 01:03:11

Info for La Comédie Humaine: Chansons balzaciennes

Arnaud Marzorati and his singers, ‘Les Lunaisiens’, are unrivalled specialists in the popular French songs of the past centuries. Here they tackle two great monuments of 19th-century France: the writer Honoré de Balzac, and songwriter Pierre-Jean de Béranger, a poet and composer highly famed in his day for his genius in depicting society in all its social diversity, from the poorest to the very richest. During this period Balzac was also making his sharply drawn portrayals of more than 5,000 characters in the course of his great opus of around 90 novels bearing the overall title of The Human Comedy. Here the ‘Lunaisiens’ have recorded musical settings of a wide selection of witty and often satirical verse, reflecting all the Parisian themes that obsessed Balzac: social climbing, money and greed, corruption, love and betrayal. With the participation of Lucile Richardot and Cyrille Dubois, Arnaud Marzorati and his ensemble give an enthusiastic account of Balzac’s extraordinary human menagerie. As Marzorati concludes: ‘The Human Comedy was greatly inspired by song.’

Lucile Richardot, mezzo-soprano
Cyrille Dubois, tenor
Arnaud Marzorati, baritone, direction
Jerome Varnier, bass
Les Lunaisiens

Lucile Richardot
began singing with the children’s choir Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Lorraine in Épinal, and subsequently trained with the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, then in early music at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris. In 2012 she founded her own ensemble, Tictactus, with two theorbist friends, Stéphanie Petibon and Olivier Labé.

In music ranging from medieval to contemporary, from the concert platform to the operatic stage, she sings regularly with Correspondances (Sébastien Daucé), Pygmalion (Raphaël Pichon), Les Arts Florissants (Paul Agnew), Pulcinella (Ophélie Gaillard) and Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien (François Lazarevitch), and has also appeared with Gérard Lesne, Patrick Cohën-Akénine, Rachid Safir and Solistes XXI, Václav Luks and Collegium 1704, Thibault Noally et Les Accents, Le Poème Harmonique, Les Paladins and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, among others.

She began appearing in major European venues in 2007, and in 2009 she created the role of First Aunt in the Philippe Boesmans opera Yvonne, Princesse de Bourgogne at the Opéra Garnier in Paris and the Theater an der Wien. A much sought-after alto soloist in oratorio, she sings as the guest of such leading international orchestras as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest and Tafelmusik in Toronto. She also devises sparkling recital programmes with the harpsichordists Jean-Luc Ho and Philippe Grisvard.

In 2018 she made debuts at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Sorceress and Spirit) and at Carnegie Hall in Berlioz roles under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, with whom she had first appeared in the three Monteverdi operas in 2017 (as Messaggiera, Penelope and Arnalta respectively) on an unprecedented European tour that was seen at La Fenice in Venice, among other venues. She worked with Gardiner again in 2019, playing the roles of Juno and Ino in Handel’s Semele, which marked another debut, this time at La Scala in Milan.

Lucile Richardot’s first solo disc, Perpetual Night with Ensemble Correspondances, was released by harmonia mundi in 2018. It received a host of international awards, including the Diapason d’Or of the Year in the ‘Baroque Vocal’ category, ‘Choc’ of the Year from Classica magazine, a ‘Diamant’ in Opéra Magazine, a Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for 2018, and the Caecilia Prize for 2019 from the Belgian Musical Press Union. Part of this programme was staged by Samuel Achache in the performance piece ‘Songs’.

In 2019 she further expanded her concert repertory with Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in a version for chamber orchestra arranged by the Dutch conductor Reinbert de Leeuw, which she sang with Het Collectief at the Saintes Festival before recording it for the Alpha label the following year.

Returning to harmonia mundi, in 2021 she recorded the disc Berio To Sing with Les Cris de Paris under Geoffroy Jourdain and Stabat Mater settings by Pergolesi and Rossell with the German Ensemble Resonanz conducted by Riccardo Minasi. She launched 2023 with a complete recording of the songs of Nadia and Lili Boulanger, accompanied by the Franco-American pianist Anne de Fornel, a three-disc set also featuring dazzling contributions from the baritone Stéphane Degout and the soprano Raquel Camarinha. Alongside this, she released another solo disc with the harpsichordist Philippe Grisvard, devoted to chamber cantatas by Alessandro Scarlatti.

In 2021 she gave her first performances as Geneviève in two different productions of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, first in Rouen and then at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with François-Xavier Roth’s Les Siècles, both staged by Eric Ruf. In 2022 it was the turn of Queen Gertrude in Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet, a role she took on at short notice for the revival of Cyril Teste’s staging at the Opéra Comique, conducted by Louis Langrée; this was followed by Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare conducted by Philippe Jaroussky, Britten (Hippolyta, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) in Rouen, then Poulenc (Les Mamelles de Tirésias) and Stravinsky (Le Rossignol) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 2023, and the title role in Desmarest’s Circé at the Boston Early Music Festival. Finally, she will be a more tongue-in-cheek sorceress as Medea in the new vaudeville show Médée et Jason, devised by the ensemble Les Surprises and the director Pierre Lebon.

All this between two lieder recitals with the pianist Adam Laloum, and two new programmes with Correspondances, of course! Among the new opera productions to come in the autumn of 2023 is Charpentier’s David et Jonathas, in the promising role of La Pythonisse (the Witch of Endor).

Cyrille Dubois
first sang in Caen’s Choir, obtained a degree in Science and studied at the Paris Conservatoire, before joining the Paris Opera’s opera workshop, the Atelier Lyrique in 2010. In 2015, Cyrille Dubois was nominated Best New Opera Artist at the Victoires de la Musique and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2022.

His wide repertoire ranges from Baroque (Hippolyte, in Hippolyte et Aricie) to contemporary music (L’Autre in Point d'orgue), Italian Bel Canto (Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola), Mozart (Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Tamino in The Magic Flute) and French Opera-comique.

He can be heard in many leading European staged, such as Teatro alla Scala, Milan (Nathanael in The Hoffmann Tales), La Monnaie in Brussels (Azor in La Dispute), Staatsoper Wien (Ernesto in Don Pasquale), Zurich Opera (Fenton in Falstaff), Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Opéra Comique (title role in Fortunio).

He has won many international competitions with Tristan Raës, and together they perform in St-Petersburg, Venice, London, Moscow, and have recorded works by Liszt, the sisters Boulangers, and the complete songs of Fauré.

Cyrille Dubois is also a concert singer and teaches masterclasses regularly. In the 2023/24 season, he sings Tamino at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Idamante (Idomeneo) at Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and Renaud (Armide) at Opéra Comique.

His discography includes about forty recordings, including the title role in Pygmalion, Iopas in The Trojans, Acanthe in Acante et Cephise, Britten’s Canticles and Gervais’s Grands Motets.

At the Paris Opera: The Tales of Hoffmann (Nathanaël), 2012; Alcina (Oronte), 2014; Ariadne auf Naxos (Brighella), 2015; King Arthur (a worker), 2015; Così fan tutte (Ferrando), 2017; Trompe-la-mort (Lucien de Rubempré), 2017; Les Huguenots (Tavannes, a monk), 2018; Les Troyens (Iopas), 2019; The Magic Flute (Tamino), 2021

Arnaud Marzorati
studied singing at the Master's degree at the Baroque Music Center of Versailles and subsequently obtained a First Prize for singing at the Paris Conservatory – CNSMDP in the class of Mireille Alcantara. His repertoire ranges from baroque music to contemporary music. Passionate about the history of French song, he is supported by the Royaumont Foundation in his musicological research and is regularly invited by major venues. Several solo recordings, released by Alpha, testify to the originality of his approach around historical song and have been praised by critics: The Muslim Pope by Pierre-Jean de Béranger, La Bouche et l'oreille, on songs by Gustave Nadaud. With Les Lunaisiens, he recorded “1789” (Alpha) and Révolutions (Paraty) on revolutionary songs from the 17th and 19th centuries, then “Vote for me!” » in 2017 at the Aparté label. It initiates new crossover encounters between popular song and classical music in partnership with the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice, the Baroque Music Center of Versailles (CMBV), France Musique, the national scene of Dunkirk. For the tercentenary of the Opéra-Comique, in 2015 he created La Guerre des théâtres and gave the premiere of Atys en madness at the Teatro Manoel in Valletta (Malta) in partnership with the CMBV. In 2019, he entered a residency with Les Lunaisiens at the Festival des Abbayes en Lorraine and became an “associated artist” at La Barcarolle in Saint-Omer. He released discs devoted to the musical universes of Brassens, Boris Vian, the Napoleonic epic with Sabine Devieilhe, as well as Molière and La Fontaine set to music through two book-discs published by La Joie de Lire. In 2023 Merd' v'la l'Hiver appears, with Stéphanie d'Oustrac at Alpha-Outhere

Les Lunaisiens
Making memory sing: with his Lunaisiens, Arnaud Marzorati offers the public the chance to (re)discover the French ‘chanson’, from its origins to the twentieth century. In exploring this repertory, too often neglected by libraries, this literature-loving baritone puts back on the menu the earliest text-based ‘chansons’ in history, works that are precious witnesses to the past no less than to the human adventure and to the proliferating musicality peculiar to each epoch.

Through this traditional vocal patrimony and by choosing to avoid the format of traditional concerts, it is indeed both history and literature that Les Lunaisiens have communicated in their shows for ten years now. Particularly attached to matters of awareness, education and social bonds, les Lunaisiens multiply residences and projects with young and disadvantaged audiences, for whom Arnaud Marzorati develops and adapts specific repertories.

From recitals to pocket opera, the ensemble, of variable composition, crisscrosses the country in order to meet its audiences. It offers them an unusual entry into music, in contact with the patrimony of France. The originality of les Lunaisiens has led them to appear no less in the great classical concert halls (Philharmonie de Paris, Bouffes du Nord...) As on opera stages (Opeìra-Comique, Angers-Nantes Opera...), national stages (Dunkirk, Evry) and museums (Invalides, Orsay...).

Les Lunaisiens are an associate ensemble with la Barcarolle, the state-subsidised theatre of the pays de saint-omer. In 2022 the ensemble was in residence at the festival des Abbayes in Lorraine. Les Lunaisiens are sponsored by the Fondation Socieìteì Geìneìrale c’est vous l’avenir, by the DRAC Preìfet of the Hauts-de-France region and by the Department of the Pas-de-Calais.

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