The Stabat Mater supplication is a fragment of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary. It is the fifth moment, when Mary stands before the cross:

• The Prophecy of Simeon
• The Flight into Egypt
• The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days
• The Encounter (a Fleeting Glance) with Jesus Carrying the Cross to Calvary
• Mary Standing at the Foot of the Cross
• The Descent from the Cross
• The Entombment

These seven stages mark our spectacular creation, a collaboration between our two groups, one (based in Clermont-Ferrand) observing traces of the Middle Ages, the other (based in Lyon) specialising in consulting and highlighting scores from the Baroque period.

The sequence (a sung poem) of the Stabat Mater is attributed by some to Jacopone da Todi (c. 1230–1306), and by others to Saint Bonaventure (1221–1274). It was also for the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin celebrated on 18 March 1712 in Brescia, Lombardy, thatAntonio Vivaldi composed his Stabat Mater , a sublime work that sets to music his intimate reflections on the shock of death and the confrontation of each individual with their own mortality. These reflections are translated into music that subtly evolves between restraint and expressiveness, giving way in the final verses to light, forgiveness and hope in ‘the glory of paradise’.

We have chosen 13th-century laude from the Cortona manuscript to complement our programme, at the heart of which lies one of the major works of the Baroque repertoire, arranged in our production for tenor voice. Universality is not something that can simply be proclaimed; it is a process of construction. From the remnants of a tradition handed down to us from the Middle Ages, to which Vivaldi brought a dizzying intensity in his musical setting of supplication, we will come together to attune our hearts and souls in the pursuit of a shared creation. From our encounter on stage will emerge a structure in which every gesture is as musical as it is visual.