Though she was subsequently sidelined by music history, Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was a major figure in French music around the turn of the 18th century, and the first French woman to write an opera. She became a member of the court of Louis XIV in her teens, and maintained her royal connections after her marriage, continuing to compose as well as teach. Her output includes keyboard music and sets of secular and biblical cantatas.
Three of the biblical pieces, Susanne and the Elders, Jacob and Rachel, and Judith, each centre on a woman who is the victim of male discrimination and repression; none have been previously performed in the UK. They are brought together in Out of Her Mouth, an hour-long theatre piece directed by Mathilde Lopez, presented as a co-production between the Dunedin Consort, Hera, and Mahogany Opera, and brought to London as part of this year’s Spitalfields festival.
