Via Aeterna 2025: Sacred music at Mont-Saint-Michel
Half shaded by the imposing branches of a Cedar of Lebanon, the abbey of the Overseas Lucerne (Manche) delights the visitor’s eye with its fully restored facade, its pretty Romanesque gate and its cross perched nineteen meters high. Inside, the large central bay of the abbey opens onto the green Thar valley, in which the monastic ensemble opened in the 12th century.
“When I arrived in 1993, I was immediately seduced by this sober architecture open to the world,” recalls Virginie Parmentier-Thébault, administrative, financial and cultural manager of the Abbey Foundation. “It translates the sense of hospitality formerly carried by the canons towards the pilgrims,” says the manager, who wishes to preserve this heritage and these values.
Thus, the abbey church is preparing to welcome a major classical music concert for the sixth year as part of the festival via Aeterna. The Belgian instrumental and choral ensemble Ricercar Consort will perform there in front of 400 people on October 3, 2025.
The Lucerne Abbey was approached by René Martin, the artistic director of Via Aeterna and also founder of the Folle Day in Nantes, from the first edition in 2017. “He immediately spotted the acoustic quality of our church, remembers Virginie Parmentier-Thébault. It is perfect for sounds, for the voice. ” It is all the more so since its large -scale restoration, completed in 2004. Today, the foundation is betting on culture to bring life to Lucerne.
Latin, baroque influences
Center for national monuments and the Manche department, the eighth edition of the classical music festival and sacred via Aeterna is setting up this year in eleven historic places in the Mont-Saint-Michel Bay. An invitation to travel through twenty -one concerts with influences, sometimes Latin, Scandinavian or Baroque, chaired this year by Samuel Lieven, editorial director of the editorial staff of Pilgrim.
Welcoming the twenty-seven artists and the 6,000 visitors expected in the department would be unthinkable without the involvement of a hundred volunteers. Michel de Tarade and his wife Marie-Christine, from lead (Manche), are one of them, who have been helping six years. “We take care of the reception, the placement of the public and the ticket control, lists the septuagenarian, playful. It is important that the inhabitants take ownership of the festival. We represent our territory. “
Continuation of little -known places
Window effect of this volunteer, the couple feast on the concerts. “We are passionate about classical music, admits Michel de Tarade. This festival highlights it, without forgetting God or the historical heritage. Via Aeterna provides great inner joy. ” This year, the couple will be at work at the Saint-Vigor church in Carolles and the old Haras d’Avranches.
Designed in 1907 in the Eiffel style according to the plans of the architect François Louvel and built by the company Lehéricé, this witness to regional equestrian history remains unknown. “To introduce these atypical places, to surprise the public … It is also one of the objectives of the festival”, underlines David Nicolas, the mayor of Avranches, his eyes on the impressive metal frame of the stud farm. Surrounded by a dozen boxes, the former ride of the merry -go -round will accommodate the concert to open the entire pocket symphony for Two Americans in Paris, September 25, 2025.
The commune of Avranches and the Mont-Saint-Saint-Normandie Agglomeration Community, chaired by David Nicolas, have since the beginning their financial support at the festival, up to 45,000 euros. “On our territory, we mainly had concerts of contemporary music, reports the elected official. Via Aeterna came to fill a lack by allowing us to diversify our proposals. ”
20 kilometers northwest of Avranches, against Jersey, the Crépie de Rose house where Christian Dior took his first steps also welcomes and for the sixth year one of the concerts of Via Aeterna. “It’s a time that is more intimate,” warns Brigitte Richart, the museum’s curator. Only forty people will have the chance to attend. ”
The lucky ones will be held in the large living room, on light gray strapontines, chosen and bought by René Martin in the blink of an eye to the favorite shade of Christian Dior. “The room will be lit by the natural light of the winter garden,” adds Brigitte Richart, from which we can see the pines, pink and bamboo dear to the designer.
Next to the large fireplace, the guitarist Gaëlle Solal will perform Line and light: creativity according to Christian Dior, concert specially designed for the occasion. “Each year, artists note a great quality of listening among listeners, reports the curator. We almost feel a religious dimension, as if the public collected himself. ” Via Aeterna proves it, the sacred also lies where it is not expected.
