Welcome to Canon Castle

Since 1998, Le Poème Harmonique, founded by Vincent Dumestre, has brought together passionate musicians dedicated to performing 17th- and 18th-century music. Their focus? Well-known and lesser-known works that punctuated daily life and ceremonies at Versailles (Lully, Couperin, Charpentier, etc.), in Baroque Italy from Monteverdi to Pergolesi, and in England with Purcell. These inventive and demanding programs reconnect the secular and the sacred, art music and popular sources, and also combine music with theater, dance, and circus arts. In the operatic realm, the ensemble is recognized as a world leader for its interpretations of works by Lully, Cavalli, and Monteverdi. Its collaboration with director Benjamin Lazar for the production of Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme resulted in performances unanimously acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. Le Poème Harmonique continues to surprise audiences by unearthing forgotten treasures (such as L’Uomo Femina, an irresistible comedy in the genre by Galuppi, directed by Agnès Jaoui; the production won the Rediscovered Work Award at the 2025 International Opera Awards), by offering a fresh approach to the greatest masterpieces (Il Nerone or L’Incoronazione di Poppea, first with the Paris National Opera Academy, then with the Teatro Mayor of Bogota), or by incorporating processions and striking spatial effects into concerts. With over sixty performances each year, Le Poème Harmonique is a familiar face at the world's most prestigious festivals and concert halls – Opéra Comique, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Philharmonie de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Ambronay, Beaune, and Sablé Festivals, Teatro Real (Madrid), Wigmore Hall (London), NCPA (Beijing), Berlin Philharmonie, Wiener Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw Bruges, BOZAR (Brussels), Oji Hall (Tokyo), Columbia University (New York), Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Accademia Santa Cecilia (Rome), Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, and the BBC Proms. Le Poème Harmonique remains deeply committed to Normandy, its home region, the birthplace of its many creations and a key location for its educational, social, and professional development initiatives for young musicians. The Poème Harmonique discography now boasts some fifty recordings, all of which have received critical acclaim. In 2023, the ensemble released Cavalli's L’Egisto – a world premiere recording – on the Château de Versailles Spectacles label, which was awarded a Choc de Classica and the prestigious Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. This was followed in the autumn of 2024 by Monteverdi Testamento – Vespro della Madonna, which received the TTTT Télérama award and the Diapason d’Or for 2025. Their recording of Purcell’s famous ode for choir and orchestra, Hail! Bright Cecilia, was released in the autumn of 2025 by CVS, while L’Uomo Femina will be released on the same label in the second half of 2026.

His pronounced taste for the arts, his creative sense of Baroque aesthetics, his exploratory spirit, and his love of collective adventure naturally led him to delve into the repertoires of the 17th and 18th centuries and to create a tailor-made ensemble. With his Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre is today one of the most inventive and versatile figures in the Baroque revival, embracing conducting orchestras, choirs, concert seasons, competitions, and festivals, all while remaining deeply involved in playing his primary instruments, the plucked strings. Vincent Dumestre honed his skills in concert and recordings with the pioneers who worked to discover, understand, and revive this music of another era. A graduate of the École du Louvre (art history) and the École Normale de Musique de Paris (classical guitar), he studied lute, Baroque guitar, and theorbo with Hopkinson Smith, Eugène Ferré, and Rolf Lislevand. He briefly performed with the Ricercar Consort, La Grande Écurie & La Chambre du Roy, Hespèrion XX, and La Simphonie du Marais before founding Le Poème Harmonique in 1998. Since then, through rediscoveries and reconstructions, from renowned composers to unexpected programs, he has consistently offered truly original works, expanding the horizons of a whole new realm of vocal and instrumental music and gaining widespread recognition. On the opera stage, his style is characterized by a unique sonic and visual aesthetic, born from the interplay of his vision, in large-scale productions, with that of artists from other disciplines: puppeteers (Mimmo Cuticchio), directors (Omar Porras, Benjamin Lazar, Cécile Roussat), and circus performers (Mathurin Bolze). Sought after by leading international baroque music venues – with Le Poème Harmonique – Vincent Dumestre also conducts part of his work in Normandy, the region where his ensemble is based (directing the Corneille Competition – an international baroque singing competition – and the Nouvelles Voix tour in Normandy). Following the remarkable success of the 2017 edition, for which he curated the program, Vincent Dumestre was invited by the city of Krakow to take over the artistic direction of the Misteria Paschalia festival in 2024, a world-renowned event for baroque music during the Easter season. He also serves as artistic director of the Jura Baroque Seasons. Vincent Dumestre is an Officer of the National Order of Arts and Letters and a Knight of the National Order of Merit.

Victoire Bunel grew up in Paris. She began her musical studies at the Radio France Choir School and then at the Department for Young Singers at the Paris Regional Conservatory (CRR). She subsequently entered the Paris Conservatory (CNSM) and the Royal Academy of Music in London while also pursuing a degree in musicology at the Sorbonne. Among her recent engagements are the Queen in Three Tales by David Lescot and Gérard Pesson at the Rennes Opera, Karolka in Janacek's Jenufa at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Siren in Duron's Coronis at the Opéra-Comique, the Second Lady in The Magic Flute at the Rouen Opera, Theone in Lully's Phaeton with Le Poème Harmonique at the Perm Opera and the Versailles Opera, Siegrune in Wagner's Die Walküre at the Bordeaux Opera, Amando in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Stift Festival in the Netherlands. She has also performed at Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris (with Daniel Harding, Matthias Pintscher, and Jean-François Hesser), the Halle aux Grains in Toulouse, and the Théâtre du Capitole, as well as in numerous chamber music recitals (Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Bordeaux Opera, Lille Opera, etc.). Victoire has given several recitals, including Schubert's Winterreise with Miroirs Étendus, the Musique au Louvre recital with Le Poème Harmonique, and a Schubert program at the Folles Journées festival in Nantes. She also gave a Mahler recital at the Casa da Música in Porto. Recently, Victoire Bunel has performed the roles of Ino in Handel's Semele at the Opéra de Lille, Annio in La Clemenza di Tito at the Opéra de Rouen, La Voisine in Francesco Filidei's L'Inondation at the Opéra-Comique and the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, Flora in La Traviata at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Ottavia in The Coronation of Poppea at the Opéra de Rennes under the direction of Damien Guillon, Fyodor in Boris Godunov at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Capitole de Toulouse, Ottavia in The Coronation of Poppea at the Opéra de Toulon under the direction of L. Garcia Alarcon, Brigitte de San Lucar in Auber's Le Domino noir at the Opéra-Comique, Nancy in Flotow's Martha at the Opéra de Limoges, and Cassandra in Galuppi's L'Uomo femina directed by A. Jaoui at the Opéra de Dijon and the Opéra de Versailles. and the Teatro Real in Madrid, Ottavia in The Coronation of Poppea at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Campra's Carnival of Venice at the Opéra de Nantes and on tour with La Coopérative, Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été under the direction of Claire Gilbault. In 2024, Victoire Bunel made a highly acclaimed debut as Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra national du Capitole in Toulouse. This season, highlights include Cassandra in Galuppi's L'Uomo femina at the Rouen Opera, directed by Agnès Jaoui; Krystina in Weinberg's La Passagère at the Toulouse National Opera; Gloire, Lucinde, and Sidonie in Lully's Armide with Le Poème Harmonique at the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Capitole de Toulouse, and the Versailles Opera; a new work at the Aix-en-Provence International Festival; and Le Voyage d'hiver with Miroirs étendus at the Rennes Opera. Victoire Bunel is a laureate of the Académie de la Fondation des Treilles, the Fondation Orsay-Royaumont, the Accenture Foundation, and the Safran Foundation. Her first CD, recorded with Sarah Ristorcelli and featuring the Elmire Quartet, is dedicated to French art song (Séverac, Fauré, and Chausson). Victoire Bunel can also be heard in the CD and DVD recording of Lully's Phaéton, recorded at the Royal Opera of Versailles with Le Poème Harmonique.