Christmas at Flamant’s

Chantons Noël chez Flamant ParisDear Paris friends, Paris visitors, come discover the most secret and romantic of all Paris squares these 9 & 16 December!

Immediate boarding for Flamant’s magic universe, especially at Christmas. 🙂 More than interior design, an art of living.

We’ll sing Christmas magic together, and the Nutcracker may well have a little story for our younger ones, including a few sweets should they have sung well 😉

Saturday afternoons
9 & 16 December 2023
3:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 5:30 pm
FLAMANT PARIS
Place Furstenberg, Paris VIe

 

Christmas in my mountains

Soprano Marie-Helene Cussac chante Noël - Christmas singalong with Marie-Helene CussacThis year, let’s sing Christmas in Chaudes-Aigues and Aurillac !

Cradle of my grandfather, I am particularly happy to come and sing in Chaudes-Aigues, most famous to you for its hottest spa in Europe (82°!). Best of all, we will gather in Notre-Dame-de-Pitié, a jewel of a church at the entrance of the town. Can’t wait to live this concert by candlelight with you all 🙂

Two days later, I will be on the other side of the mountain, west of Plomb du Cantal, in Notre-Dame-aux-Neiges (Our Lady of the Snows, how inspirational) right in the city centre. There we will welcome a surprise guest singer for a duet. Tadaaa…

I will stick to my free financial participation tradition so all feel welcome. And both concerts are scheduled at 5:00 pm so all generations may join in.

Soprano Marie-Helene Cussac chante Noël - Christmas singalong with Marie-Helene CussacChaudes-Aigues
Notre-Dame-de-Pitié
19 December 2023
5:00 pm

Aurillac
Notre-Dame-aux-Neiges
21 December 2023
5:00 pm

Let’s singalong!

Christmas singalong in Paris!

Marie-Helene Cussac Christmas concert de Noël Saint-Germain-des-PrésWhat better place to celebrate Advent than Paris’s oldest church Saint-Germain-des-Prés? How exciting!

I invite you indeed to a Christmas singalong with family and friends,

Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (métro line 4)
Sunday, December 3rd, 2023

3:00pm
Free participation

While the concert borrows the English tradition of “Singalongs“, I – as usual – wish the concert to be open to all of you and therefore borrow the French tradition of “Concert au Chapeau“, meaning that you are free to join in and free to choose what financial participation you wish to contribute (to the concert expenses). Hence “free participation”.

I will surely sing some arias from famous Haendel’s Messiah, and more 🙂

And you(!) will join in for some carols.
Here are the lyrics:

O Come All Ye Faithful
John Francis Wade (1711-1786)

O come, all ye faithful,
joyful and triumphantO come ye,
o come ye to Bethlehem!O come and behold Him,
born the King of Angels
O come, let us adore Him!O come, let us adore Him!O come, let us adore Him Christ the Lord!

Adeste, fideles,
Laeti triumphantes,
Venite, venite in Bethlehem!
Natum videte,
Regem angelorum

Venite, adoremus!
Venite, adoremus!
Venite, adoramus Dominum!
Venite, adoramus Dominum!

Peuple fidèle, le Seigneur t’appelle :
C’est fête sur Terre, le Christ est né.
Viens à la crèche voir le Roi du monde.

En lui viens reconnaître,
En lui viens reconnaître
En lui viens reconnaître
Ton Dieu, ton Sauveur !

O Holy Night
Adolphe Adam en 1847 sur un poème de Placide Cappeau en 1843

O Holy Night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine!
Oh night when Christ was born
Oh night divine! Oh night divine!

Minuit! Chrétiens, c’est l’heure solennelle
Où l’homme Dieu descendit jusqu’à nous,
Pour effacer la tache originelle
Et de son père arrêter le courroux:
Le monde entier tressaille d’espérance
A cette nuit qui lui donne un sauveur
Peuple, à genoux attends ta délivrance,
Noël! Noël! Voici le Rédempteur!
Noël! Noël! Voici le Rédempteur!

Les anges dans nos campagnes

1. Les anges dans nos campagnes
Ont entonné l’hymne des cieux,
Et l’écho de nos montagnes
Redit ce chant mélodieux :

Gloria in excelsis Deo !
Gloria in excelsis Deo !

2. Bergers, pour qui cette fête ?
Quel est l’objet de tous ces chants ?
Quel vainqueur, quelle conquête
Mérite ces cris triomphants :

3. Ils annoncent la naissance
Du libérateur d’Israël
Et pleins de reconnaissance
Chantent en ce jour solennel :

Congratulations for singing along and please continue to enjoy the magnificence of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, dating back to 558!

Sincere thanks to the heartwarming parish of Saint-Germain-des-Prés for their warm welcome.

Have a lovely Advent and a joyous Christmas,

With love,
Marie-Hélène

Marie-Helene Cussac Christmas concert de Noël Saint-Germain-des-Prés

 

La Vie en Fleur

Hello dearest public from St-Flour and my mountains, and dear faithful August holiday-makers 🙂

Marie-Helene Cussac soprano la vie en fleur

Our annual gathering in Saint-Flour’s Cathedral is scheduled for Aug. 16th at 8:30pm.

Cathédrale de Saint-Flour
16 August 2023
8:30 pm

I can’t wait to catch up… especially that this year we’ll be celebrating our 10th anniversary! 2013-2023, ten years I have been maintaining this very French tradition of a concert “au chapeau”, meaning that there is no paying ticket to join, so each and everyone feels welcome and free to pop by and listen, and why not get swept off one’s feet by music.

This year, the theme of the concert imposed itself quite early. I feel I may well have been holding it in for a while. A hymn to Nature. The nature that I so much love here in my home mountains of Cantal (France), facing our numerous dying fur trees, facing our Narse (Natura 2000 vast humid zone) under threat of being dried out for business interests while the whole world is looking out for water. I feel our responsibility is to help Nature face the challenges our civilization has imposed onto her. So one must have faith in humanity.

That is the message of hope I’ll be singing, along the lines of La Vie en Fleur, a novel by 19th century French writer Anatole France, echoing what I so much support: Access to art as of childhood.

Marie-Helene Cussac soprano concert chant et orgue cathedrale de saint-flour la vie en fleur

Candles or stars?

Marie-Helene Cussac Soprano Concert by CandlelightWithin this grey January, white with snow in my Cantal home, thinking back to the candles of last 21 December concert with its heartwarming atmostphere and all of you singing warms up my Parisian day.

I come to realise that I have not yet published the pictures of that fabulous late afternoon by candlelight with mulled wine and hot cider; sorry; here they are!

That Christmas singalong was at 5pm to enjoy the dark while allowing getting home not too late in our mountains. Yet I had forgotten about milking… I, countrygirl, forgetting about our cows. Our farmers were there anyway, taking part as always. They had started milking ahead of schedule, taken a break for a concert, back at it later, heads & hearts full of music.

Our countryside magic, once again.
And I, very moved, once again.

Dolce Vita concert

Marie-Helene Cussac concert bel canto saint-flour 2022Here we are, August is here already and so is our annual meeting in Saint-Flour (Cantal). This year however, it will be able to “see” each other again, yes! No specific C* restrictions and the freedom to catch-up. That feels good.

When choosing the theme of this year’s concert, I was – as always – reflecting on the past year and what had come round the corner. While we could feel better re Covid, the war in Ukraine broke out, as if one wasn’t left with a moment to breathe. Yet I thought of life, the precious little pleasures of our daily routines. And I wished to say, yes, life is – also – beautiful. So “dolce vita” popped up in my mind and I immediately decided that that would be it for our 2022 concert at home.

For Fellini’s fans knowing the 1960 Dolce Vita movie, sure the image people bare in mind today is quite at odds with the dark underlying background of the movie. “Dolce vita” today calls for images of sun, sea, farniente, friendship and love, enjoying l-i-f-e. Which is the message I wished to share this year.

Musically, I also felt like going back to bel canto.  So welcome back to some Puccini, Catalani, i tutti 🙂 The Italian language will be “à l’honneur”.

See you then on August 9th, at 8:30pm in our St-Flour cathedral for a lovely catch-up. Andiamo!

Tribute to Notre Dame

Dear friends,

today is two years that Notre-Dame dramatically underwent that huge fire and I wished to share with you, today, my emotion and prayer to Our Lady.

I therefore share a few Ave Marias (Franck, Cherubini, Caccini) with you today.

Ave Maria, Giulio Caccini
Ave Maria, César Franck
 Ave Maria, Luigi Cherubini

 

 

Christmas Singalong

Now let’s meet in my beloved Cantal to sing… together 🙂

Christmas arias and other Christmas traditional tunes to sing together.

Villedieu church (Saint-Flour)
22 December 2020, 5:00 pm
with… your masks
Free contribution to costs

Marie-Hélène Cussac concert de Noël 2020 Christmas carols singalong

Ave Maria sing-along concert

So happy to be back in touch with 2 beautiful projects this week 🙂
– 12 August in Lescure with a 100% Ave Maria concert at 8:30 pm
– 16 August in St-Flour’s cathedral with a daring programme with organ at 8 pm

This coming Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 8:30 pm, you’re invited to join in a brand new project! A sing-along programme with plenty of surprises, from scenography, lights, etc.

Notre-Dame de Lescure
12 August 2020
8:30 pm
With your mask!
Free participation to the concert expenses

Marie-Helene Cussac au pied de la Croix des Apparitions à Lescure dans le Cantal
Marie-Helene Cussac by the Apparitions Cross in Lescure, Cantal, France

Marie-Helene Cussac au pied de la croix de Lescure Affiche du concert Ave Maria à Lescure