The sudden death of Henri Ledroit in 1988, at the age of just forty-two, left music-lovers in a state of shock. His voice was new and unique among the French singers of the time and during his first encounter with Alfred Deller at a training course in Lacoste, the two of them hit it off immediately. The famous English countertenor was impressed by his trainee’s exceptional talent and strongly encouraged the young singer. From then on, Henri Ledroit’s career took off, both in concert as well as on stage with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and René Jacobs. In 1986, he sang as Ottone in Claudio Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppaea at the Lausanne Opera (Théâtre du Jorat), which had just opened under the direction of Renée Auphan. The production, directed by Michel Corboz and staged by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, would go down in history and the visual recordings of the performance are a testament to this.
The great work of Du Mont is now being rediscovered thanks to the tireless efforts of Belgian musicologist Jérôme Lejeune under the Ricercar label and is intended to be played by the ensemble with the same name, under the direction of Jean Tubéry and Philippe Pierlot. This recording of Henry Du Mont’s Motets à voix seule from the early 1980s also features the vocals of the early Gérard Lesne. A pioneering work that can be heard today with all its original emotion intact. © François Hudry/Qobuz