The Fête de l’Humanité du Cher brings civic gathering, food and popular music into the grounds of Château de Saint-Florent-sur-Cher. A convivial meal and republican banquet make the shared table central, while various booths create space for participating groups to meet the public. Senator Ian Brossat joins the gathering, giving its political identity a visible presence alongside the social program. Music takes over through a tribute concert devoted to Renaud, whose repertoire adds a familiar voice of protest and everyday life. The mix of conversation, dining and song reflects the festival’s emphasis on collective participation, keeping politics and pleasure in the same public space. Set against the château grounds, the event connects a national political tradition with the associations, audiences and musical culture of the Cher.
Tag: vocal-music
L’Oranger Early Music Concert
L’Oranger brings early Occitan music from France and Spain into a programme of courtly tunes and folk traditions. Mezzo-soprano Ariane Le Fourmis performs alongside Zuzanna Dubiszewska on traverso and Layal Ramadan on viola da gamba. Pierre Baptiste Brioude-Dhénain completes the ensemble on theorbo and baroque guitar, giving the concert its combination of voice, flute and string instruments.
Vaslav Cabaret Theatre
Vaslav is Olivier Normand’s flamboyant cabaret-theatre recital, built around a fantastical persona, lavish make-up and sequins. The solo performance explores fluid identities through humour, theatrical transformation and a voice that moves from baritone to countertenor. A shruti box supplies its hypnotic drone as cult songs and popular music pass through the room. Barbara, Grace Jones and David Bowie meet Schubert, West Side Story, Michel Legrand and even the force of a Bizet aria, creating deliberate collisions between genres and eras. Normand treats the stage as a laboratory for character, sound and poetic androgyny beyond the shape of a conventional song recital. Extravagance never stands alone: fantasy and emotion become tools for questioning fixed roles and celebrating the freedom to shift between them.
Les Maîtres Sonneurs
The Kraken Consort brings Celtic songs and instrumental tunes to Les Maîtres Sonneurs at Besançon’s music festival. Flutes, bagpipes, cittern and theorbo weave around the singers, drawing on traditions from Ireland, Scotland and Brittany. The eight musicians connect oral repertoires with written music in a programme named after George Sand’s novel.
Concerts chez Cathy
Malo Carvou and his musician friends hold the Irish session, while the Breton one gathers Ifig and Nanda Troadec, J-Pierre Hélías, Bernez Breton, Brigitte Le Corre, Marie-Laurence Fustec and Katie Le Moigne-Thomas. Nico carries Brassens, Ferrat and Italian songs across one of the sittings, and Les Voix Expresses take another. Seating is limited, reservation is required, and donations are welcome. More dates are promised for the series, which plays on rue Lucien Le Lay in Penmarch.
Hatiao Club
Hatiao Club begins with Azou, a Breton grandmother whose hidden gathering place draws her grandchildren into a final investigation. Music, song, drawers, bread with butter and domestic clues turn grief into a playful search through family memory. The piece gives contemporary theatre a regional texture through Breton kinship, food detail and oral mystery.
Cali Revoltes et Amour fou
Cali brings Révoltes et Amour fou to Quimperlé with Catalan guitarist Pierre-Andre de Vera, revisiting his own repertoire and songs tied to revolt, solidarity and hope. Voice, guitar and text give the evening its intimate scale. La Loco provides a close setting for a leading figure in contemporary French chanson.
Fiuminale Corsican Duo
Maxime Merlandi and Jean-Philippe Guissani perform as Fiuminale in Tence. The two singers previously founded the Corsican vocal quartet Barbara Furtuna. Their duo places two voices in conversation, rising separately, answering and joining in polyphonic harmony, with singing that combines power and intimacy.
Thomas Piet: Koala
Thomas Piet takes apart the lessons in masculinity that follow a boy into adulthood in Koala. His solo show combines comedy and songs while confronting the pressure to hide emotion, reject one’s body and perform virility. Staged by Stéphane Corbin, the Clermont-Ferrand performance explores consent, vulnerability and the possibility of making peace with oneself.
Occitan Ancient Music Concert in Verges: Cultural Experience
Occitan early music brings singing, theorbo and early flute together in Verges. The theorbo is a large member of the lute family, developed from bass and contrabass lutes. Its extended bass strings give the low notes greater clarity and power, a feature of an instrument historically used for accompaniment.