Festival Musicancy

Every year, Musicancy reinvents its festival with original formats and new creations. 2025 is no exception: for its 22nd edition, the festival is celebrating young people with shows designed with them in mind (51 master students involved in the creation of a contemporary opera by Edwin Baudo), participatory actions for them (45 pupils from Ancy-le-Franc primary school involved in two concerts) and shows for all, combining concerts, film-concert, operas, tales and songs. But this year Musicancy is also showcasing the talents of Burgundy-Franche-Comté and the vitality of the regional baroque scene, with the ensembles Masques, Les Timbres, Les Traversées baroques and La Maîtrise de Dijon. These exceptional ensembles are joined by prestigious artists: mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot, who has just won the 2025 Victoire de la Musique award; harpsichordist Benjamin Alard, a great Bach specialist; Pierre Deschamps, an unrivalled storyteller; and violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, who is revisiting 'The Four Seasons' in virtuoso style on the occasion of their 300th anniversary. By combining artistic standards, transmission, conviviality and local roots, Musicancy is pursuing its primary mission: to arouse curiosity, bring generations together and fill its audiences with wonder in one of Burgundy's most beautiful buildings.

Details of the programme:

Saturday 3 May - 8.00 pm
Les Nuits d'une Demoiselle - Ensemble Contraste and Lucile Richardot
Songs of love
Château d'Ancy-le-Franc - Cour d'honneur (Salle polyvalente in case of bad weather)

In 1963, Colette Renard wrote this irresistibly poetic and bawdy song: "Les Nuits d'une Demoiselle", an iconoclastic diary of the nightlife of a woman in tune with her century and her asserted independence. In keeping with this adventurous spirit, Ensemble Contraste invites the truculent and talented mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot, winner of the 2025 Victoire de la Musique, to embody the nocturnal chronicles that the poets of Paris from the Belle Époque to the post-war period imagined in their songs. Les Nuits d'une Demoiselle is an opportunity to reconcile our learned composers Poulenc, Offenbach and Lili Boulanger with our unforgettable troubadours Gainsbourg, Barbara, Béart and Vian.

Bis Participatif Jeune Public (audience members can join the young audience in rehearsing a song to be performed as an encore (maximum 30 people, registration at the box office or at [email protected])

Saturday 3 May 7.15pm: Listening keys


Saturday 24 May - 8.00 pm
Fifth Brandenburg Concerto - Benjamin Alard and his ensemble
Chamber Orchestra
Château d'Ancy-le-Franc - Salle des Gardes

In 1719, during his stay in Berlin to acquire a harpsichord for the court of Köthen, J. S. Bach met Christian-Louis de Brandebourg-Schwedt, Margrave of Brandenburg and uncle of the King of Prussia. He became the dedicatee of the six Brandenburg Concertos, an emblematic collection of Baroque concertos in which Bach exploited the diversity of timbres and the dynamics of instrumental dialogue with unequalled virtuosity. The 5th Concerto, which is particularly innovative, stands out for its treatment of the harpsichord, which moves from an accompanying role to that of soloist, culminating in a spectacular cadenza. In counterpoint to this masterly work, the programme includes other pieces by Bach and an Overture by Telemann, another major figure of the German Baroque and a close friend of Bach. Here, then, is the promise of a joyous concert combining virtuosity and eloquence with one of the most gifted harpsichordists on the Baroque scene, Benjamin Alard.

Saturday 24 May 19:15: Listening keys


Friday 27 June - 8.30pm
Le Ballon Rouge - Les Traversées Baroques, Judith Pacquier and Étienne Meyer
Ciné-Concert
Château d'Ancy-le-Franc - Cour d'honneur (Salle des Gardes in case of bad weather)

Paris 1950: Pascal, a 6-year-old toddler, frees a red balloon hanging from a lamppost. The balloon begins to follow him around, becoming his friend. This surprising complicity arouses the curiosity, but also the jealousy, of the grown-ups... Between humour and sensitivity, this cinematic tale was directed in 1956 by Albert Lamorisse and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Oscar for best original screenplay. The delicacy of the cinematic story is brought to life here by Étienne Meyer's original music: a score full of finesse, written for four baroque instruments, highlighting the richness of their timbre. A journey through an enchanting world of sound and film, rediscovering Paris in the 1950s, with its narrow streets, shops, buses... and children in knickerbockers.


Saturday 28 June - 5.00 pm
Le Petit Vagabond by Edwin Baudo - La Maîtrise de Dijon
Musical tale for children's choir
Château d'Ancy-le-Franc - Cour d'honneur (Salle des Gardes or Orangerie in case of bad weather)

Composed by Edwin Baudo to a libretto by Thomas Abgrall and Edwin Baudo, this musical tale recounts the struggle to save a cinema dedicated to the films of Charlie Chaplin. A group of friends, lost in front of the cinema, push open the door and meet Paulin, a melancholy projectionist. Who is this Chaplin for a generation lulled by special effects? Curious, the children get caught up in Paulin's story, discovering a hero without a cape with very real powers: to amaze, to make people laugh and to touch their hearts. A breath of adventure draws them into a joyful struggle to save the room and, with it, a precious treasure of humanity. After "Les Mystères du Père-Lachaise" in 2023, Edwin Baudo makes a poetic return to Ancy-le-Franc, awakening the soul of Charlot with La Maîtrise de Dijon, accompanied for a few tunes by pupils from the Ancy-le-Franc school. Séraphine Porte has been working on this over the school year, with workshops with the composer and director.

Thursday 17 July - 8.00 pm
Pygmalion by Rameau - Ensemble Masques, Olivier Fortin
Ballet Act
Château d'Ancy-le-Franc - Cour d'honneur (Salle des Gardes in case of bad weather)

"Pygmalion" is in the tradition of small court operas. Composed in a week by Jean-Philippe Rameau, this ballet act in six scenes with an overture was a runaway success and became a masterpiece of the Baroque repertoire. Rameau himself was deeply moved by the public's reception: "Transported, he wept with joy. He was intoxicated by the reception he had received from the public [and] vowed to devote the rest of his life to it. Inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pygmalion tells the story of a sculptor in love with his statue, which is brought to life by Venus. Conducted by Olivier Fortin, the Ensemble Masques, a renowned baroque ensemble based in Cluny, brings this jewel to life with the formidable Cyril Auvity in the title role.

This production is touring the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region, in association with the Beaune International Baroque Opera Festival and Cluny Abbey (Centre des monuments nationaux).

Thursday 17 July 7.15pm: Listening keys


Tuesday 5 August - 8:00 pm
La Nuit Merveilleuse, 2nd edition - Les Timbres, Harmonia Lenis, Pierre Deschamps
Storytelling and music
Château d'Ancy-le-Franc - Three venues, three events

Inaugurated in 2024, La Nuit Merveilleuse returns in 2025 to offer a new stroll through the château and a concert experience combining storytelling, music and heritage. Audiences are invited to travel in small groups through the rooms of the château, discovering the richness of a Baroque repertoire performed by Les Timbres, a Burgundy-Franche-Comté ensemble well known to Musicancy, and associated for the occasion with the Japanese ensemble Harmonia Lenis. The audience will be swept away by the virtuosity of Telemann, author of the six extraordinary Trios of 1718, and by the dreamlike power of the unrivalled storyteller Pierre Deschamps, who enchanted the Galerie de Médée last year.


Sunday - September 14 - 5:00 p.m.
The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi - The Consort and Théotime Langlois de Swarte
Chamber orchestra
Château d'Ancy-le-Franc - Cour d'honneur (Salle des Gardes or Orangerie in case of bad weather)

Why play "The Four Seasons" again today, 300 years after its publication in 1725? For Théotime Langlois de Swarte, the answer is obvious: they have been with him since childhood and have partly shaped his career as a violinist. A true Baroque masterpiece, this work is bursting with energy, contrasts and emotion, painting nature with a force that has endured through the centuries. But if this music is now world-famous, its immense success has ended up blurring its contours, causing it to lose some of its original boldness. At the helm of the ensemble Le Consort, the brilliant violinist offers a new version with an intimate, unadorned approach, an invitation to listen to 'The Four Seasons' as if for the first time. A concert for young and old, music lovers and neophytes alike, and a rare opportunity to rediscover a flamboyant Vivaldi, performed by a great virtuoso.

Sunday 14 September 16:15: Listening keys