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Sacred Concert of the Leçon de Ténèbres by François Couperin and Music by Marin Marais

St. Mary Magdalen Church
Berkeley, CA

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Sacred Concert of the Leçon de Ténèbres by François Couperin and Music by Marin Marais

Sopranos Rita Lilly and Luciana Miranda combine their sumptuously beautiful voices in combination with the sensitively realized music of the viola da gamba, played by Lynn Tetenbaum and the harpsichord, touched by Andy Canepa.

The Leçons de ténèbres pour le mercredi saint ("Tenebrae Readings for Holy Wednesday") are a series of three vocal pieces composed by François Couperin for the liturgies of Holy Week, 1714, at the Abbaye royale de Longchamp.

Couperin's Leçons de ténèbres use the Latin text of the Old Testament Book of Lamentations, in which Jeremiah deplores the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. In the Catholic tradition, they symbolize the loneliness of Christ, betrayed by Judas and abandoned by his apostles.