Motets and Chansons from the French Court, featuring four earthly queens, the Queen of Heaven, texts from the Song of Songs, and more.

The Gesualdo Six, directed by Owain Park, present a selection of Motets and Chansons from the French Court, focusing on European Queens: Anne of Brittany, Marguerite d’Austria, Anne Boleyn and Mary Tudor. Reflecting on these earthly regencies, devotional motets for the Queen of Heaven are interwoven with texts from the Song of Songs, appropriated to venerate the Blessed Virgin, alongside specially written chansons and motets commemorating key moments in the reign of Europe’s Queens. The programme will also include new works of renaissance French poetry by Owain Park, and Ninfea Crutwell-Reade, specially commissioned by The Gesualdo Six.