5. Royal Scottish National Orchestra LA MER

Thursday 7 March 2024, 7.30pm

Bonis

Femmes de légende, Three Pieces for Orchestra

Chausson Poème de l’amour et de la mer

Ravel Une barque sur l’océan

Debussy La mer

Catriona Morison mezzo-soprano Thomas Søndergård conductor

Cleopatra, the fabled queen. Salomé, the temptress. Ophelia, Shakespeare’s gentle, lovelorn heroine. Tonight, the RSNO becomes each of them in turn, in a fantastical lost masterpiece by the 19th-century French composer Mel Bonis. And that’s just the start of it: Thomas Søndergård joins Scotland’s international award-winning mezzo Catriona Morison to unleash floodtides of passion in an all-French evening inspired by the sea. When Chausson, Ravel and Debussy gazed at the waves, they each saw a different kind of beauty: let them sweep you away tonight.

© Andrew Low

– Mezzo-soprano