Gathered around Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre, you’ll discover an unknown aspect of the French mélodie of the Fin-de-siècle. Based on sometimes very intimate texts by Rimbaud, Baudelaire or Verhaeren, among others, these crepuscular works externalized, one century ago already, the existential malaise of the mankind facing the Progress.

The rare contralto tone of Sarah Laulan, laureate at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Competition and at the Geneva International Competition, and associated artist at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, serves the ambiguity of these mélodies, that deploy by turns onirism, darkness, but also humour, provocation and cynicism.

Inside the booklet, an enriched iconography based on Félicien Rops’ works reminds with sweetness and emotion this time of artistic claim – more newsworthy than ever.