REGARDS 2025
May 12–15 & June 6–8, 2025
For this new 2025 edition, the musical encounter Regards will be spreading out across Domfront and the surrounding communes for extra moments of pleasure. Audiences will be treated to two concert highlights, a ball, musical impromptus and workshops.
The music will be beneficial, funny, intoxicating, healing and meditative – just the thing to make you feel good!
From May 12 to 15, the touring festival will travel across the region, bringing performances closer to local communities. The spotlight will be on ZIG-BANG, a production by the lyrical company Ode et Lyre. Two sopranos face a fantastical, eccentric machine—a fusion of bicycle, piano, and a gigantic inflatable whale… A playful and humorous dive into the theatrical-musical world of Georges Aperghis, a major contemporary composer.
The festival continues from June 6 to 8 with the young and talented ensemble Apotropaïk, winner of numerous early music awards in France and abroad. Their program, BELLA DONA, celebrates the idealized and coveted woman of medieval courtly love, while also evoking her darker side—like the deadly Bella Donna, well known to witches…
The BAL des Télamurés-Tarentella Roots will take us to the heart of Puglia in southern Italy in a veritable explosion of voices, rhythms and energy, to bring to life the timeless tarantella, a frenzied dance that cured the madness caused by spider bites! Join in the dance!
A not-to-be-missed feature of the Regards festival, the Sunday lunchtime aperitif-concert will take place in the Cour Marie du Rocher in Domfront, with MADRIGAL FESTIN, featuring ancient music sprinkled with lyrical arias and spiced up with 90s pop. Unconcerting!
The festival closes with the De Caelis ensemble and Tunisian singer Alia Sellami on a journey to the heart of Eastern and Western spirituality, featuring Western songs from 13th-century Spain and Maronite and Sufi songs.
THE THEBAIS – Desert spirituality, offers a different experience of time, one that is resolutely beneficial.
Monday 12/05, 2.30pm (schools) – Champsecret Community Hall
Tuesday 13/05, 8.00pm – Montsecret Equestrian Arena
Thursday 15/05, 14:00 – Domfront Theatre
ZIG BANG | Cie ODE ET LYRE, From age 7
Drunk on words and laughter
Two sopranos grapple with a monstrous machine, a gigantic inflatable whale-piano-bicycle. A funny and surprising show to discover the music of today, that of composer Georges Aperghis.
Friday 06/06, 8.30pm – Abbaye Notre-Dame, Lonlay
BELLA DONNA | APOTROPAÏK ENSEMBLE
Candlelight concert
The young, award-winning Apotropaïk ensemble takes a fresh look at the medieval repertoire. In Bella Donna, they sing of the idealized and coveted woman, sometimes poisonous and deadly like belladonna, a poison well known to witches…
Saturday 07/06, 8:30 PM – Square Lévêque, Domfront
BAL | TÉLAMURÉ – TARENTELLA ROOTS
Everyone on the dancefloor!
Télamuré Tarantella-Roots transport us into the exhilaration of the popular festivals of southern Italy, a veritable explosion of voices, rhythm and energy. A colourful ball, where you can immediately breathe in the passion and joie de vivre. Let’s dance!
Sunday 08/06, 11:45 – Apéro-concert, Cour Marie du Rocher, Domfront
MADRIGAL FESTIN | CIE XYLOPHAGES
Lyrical aperitif
A concert with a flavour of early music, sprinkled with lyrical arias and spiced up with 90s pop. An unexpected recipe that’s sure to make your ears water.
Sunday 08/06, 4.30pm – Église Saint-Julien, Domfront
LES THÉBAÏDES – SPIRITUALITÉ DU DÉSERT | DE CAELIS ENSEMBLE
Breath from Elsewhere
De Caelis, accompanied by Tunisian singer Alia Sellami, sing of the faraway Middle Ages and the Orient through 13th-century Spanish, Sufi and Maronite songs. Music that blends the measured with the immeasurable for an unheard-of, healing experience.
THE PEDAGOGICAL ACTIONS
Moments of discovery and surprise are offered from the month of February so that the festival’s music can gradually settle in Domfront and its surroundings.
Residents will be able to enjoy:
– Impromptus in the city: mini-concerts followed by meetings with artists in sometimes unusual locations around the city! At the library, at Intermarché, in nursing homes (EHPAD), in schools…
– Workshops:
> Workshops around the show Zig-Bang will take place in Champsecret and Domfront to explore the sung and spoken music of composer G. Aperghis.
> Polyphonic practice and Occitan music workshops led by Lili Aymonino and Jack Aymonino will be organized for a choir.
> A Tarantella dance workshop on Saturday, June 7, open to all, to get into the mood for the evening ball.