Mélusine, by Cécile McLorin Salvant
Cécile McLorin Salvant, voice
Dušan Balarin, theorbo
In July 2023 MetLiveArts welcomed three-time GRAMMY®-winning jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant for a digital-exclusive in the Unicorn Tapestries Room at The Met Cloisters. For Salvant, also a skilled textile artist, the tapestries have been a source of inspiration. Much of her music relates vivid stories of mythical creatures—her acclaimed “Ogresse,” which tells of a fantastical, forest-dwelling monster-woman, premiered at The Met in 2018. Now, alongside several of her closest collaborators, Salvant creates a program that reimagines songs from her latest album, “Mélusine,” drawing on the beloved Unicorn Tapestries’ mythological grandeur and themes of corporeal and ethereal love.
The European folkloric legend of Mélusine—a woman who becomes half-serpent each Saturday due to a childhood curse—forms the basis for Salvant’s album. Mélusine weds the young Raymondin on the condition that they never see each other on Saturdays, but at the urging of his brother, Raymondin betrays this promise. In this original song, Salvant, accompanied by a lone theorbo (a French baroque lute), tells of the sorrowful moment when the eponymous maiden sees her husband spying as she bathes nude.
For more information and to view the full series of Salvant’s Cloisters performances, please visit https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/digital-premieres/cecile-mclorin-salvant-cloisters
Cécile McLorin Salvant appears courtesy of Nonesuch Records.
Recorded on Wednesday, July 5, 2022 in the Unicorn Tapestries Room, Gallery 17, The Met Cloisters
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