Summary
A tragicomic recital, or the impossible story of a cello and a mezzo-soprano
There is almost no repertoire for cello and mezzo-soprano voice – apart from Ophelia’s Song by Shostakovich.
Needless to say, Albane and Raphaël’s duo seemed off to a bad start. Yet their rapport triumphed over this limitation, and by straying off the beaten track they invented their own dialogue. Playing with traditions, mixing classical and popular song, picking up a cello as if it were a guitar, switching between head voice and chest voice – in short, practising the art of rupture – led our two protagonists to build a programme in three acts. From Baroque to bossa nova by way of British Romantic music, they offer a musical journey that is by turns mischievous and melancholy. Talking directly to the audience, they guide it through historical shifts and original adaptations, inviting it to join in by singing a drone over which Irish variations unfold, or by taking a piece apart to reveal its structure.
But here’s the thing! Tonight, nothing is going as usual. He arrived too early; she, only just on time. He calls on the audience as a witness; she reminds him to be professional. He drowns her out by playing too loud; she hides his bow… There’s tension in the air, they’re no longer on the same wavelength, and it becomes clear that this is no longer about overcoming the original impossibility of their duo – no… now it’s their own relationship that is falling apart!
Will these forty minutes turn into a biting break-up scene? That’s without counting on the urge to transform that brought them together in the first place. Just as they found new musical paths together, the duo is called upon to reinvent their relationship and give it a new shape. From dirty tricks to cathartic settling of scores, they break with the traditional concert format to reveal two strong personalities in ever more absurd situations – who has the upper hand: a cellist stuck to his chair, or a singer who can twirl around him, make him vanish behind the swirls of her dress, or tickle him during the trickiest arpeggios? And yet the evocative power of the repertoire they have no choice but to play – chosen back when they still got along – will remind them of all the beautiful, tender moments they have shared.
Ruptures, then – in the most fertile sense of the word – taking us places we never thought we would go.
Musical approach
Albane Carrère and Raphaël Jouan met in 2022 on a quartet concert tour and went on working together as a duo, out of a shared love for musical styles where no one expects them.
As comfortable in the Baroque style as in bossa nova or traditional songs, they have built a repertoire of eclectic, surprising arrangements that they explore with passion. Raphaël Jouan’s cello becomes by turns a continuo, a second operatic voice and a Latin guitar, while Albane Carrère’s voice embodies the sensitivity of a Handel opera, the purity of an Irish air or the rhythmic sway of a Brazilian song. An intense journey to the heart of emotion!
