VILAINE PROJECT 2

Vilaine, a women’s vocal ensemble of 5 singers, was created in 2021 on the initiative of singer and choirmaster Mélanie Panaget.

Having long practiced world music, sung in many languages and discovered a wide variety of colors and universes, Mélanie Panaget is now refocusing on France and exploring the richness of her country’s traditions.

The name Vilaine refers to two elements:

The Vilaine is the name of our region’s river, which flows through a large part of Gallo country. The river’s name comes from the yellow color it takes on when it floods, a color due to the shale it flows through over 140 km. It therefore symbolizes the land of our birth, our roots in this territory, as we all originate from the banks of the Vilaine, in Haute-Bretagne.

There’s also a legend: a young girl with superb hair but an unattractive face loved a handsome prince. Her love was unrequited, and the girl wept so much that her tears created the river, then called La Vilaine in her honor.

This legend invites us to reflect on self-acceptance and freedom of being, as we perceive it in the 21st century.

Through this name, Vilaine highlights, defends and conveys the strength and beauty of women, past and present, in their differences, their diversity, their contradictions and their struggles.

The project features a repertoire of original compositions, and is part of a creative process that blends traditional elements: the regional languages of mainland France (Gallo, Breton, Basque, Catalan, Alsatian, Provençal, Languedoc, Corsican, Poitevin-Saintongeais, etc.) and the colors of world song.

Vilaine’s music is at times raw and tribal, accompanied by percussion (Spanish pandeiro and pandereta, etc.), and at other times soft and bewitching, leaving the voices totally free and airy, carried by the magic of a cappella singing…

Since the beginning of Vilaine’s career, several collaborations have taken place or are underway with different artists and partners.

For work residencies, the group has been welcomed by the Au bout du plongeoir association (Thorigné-Fouillard), la Grange Théâtre (Thourie), Le Rotz (Val d’Anast), l’Espace Beausoleil (Pont-Péan), le center culturel du Coglais (Montours).

Vilaine called on several authors and speakers to work on the texts: singer Bèrtran Ôbrée for the composition and/or writing of songs in Gallo; storyteller Yannick Jaulin for the text in Poitevin-Saintongeais; various authors/musicians/speakers also agreed to help us with the pronunciation of their texts (Marthe Vassallo, Laurence Lavrand and Axel Landeau for Breton; Itxaro Borda for Basque; Patrizia Gattaceca, Jean-Claude Acquaviva (A Filetta), Johan Bernardini for Corsican; Clément Chauvet (Du Bartas) for Provençal; the group Babüsk for Alsatian).

To complete the musical arrangements, Vilaine called on various artists: Manu Théron (Lo cor de la plana) for some of the vocal arrangements, Jean-Félix Hautbois for percussion, Emmanuel Pesnot and Sylvain GirO for stage direction.

Artistic director: Mélanie Panaget

Stage director: Sylvain GirO

Vocal coach: Emmanuel Pesnot

Outside ear: Manu Théron

Percussion arrangements : Jean-Félix Hautbois

Texts in Gallo: Bèrtran Ôbrée

Texts in Poitevin-Saintongeais: Yannick Jaulin