“In the Belly of the Beast“
Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre: Cantates Bibliques
Carolyn Sampson, Mariana Rodrigues
Liam Burne, Lynda Sayce, Alice Earll
Metronome London, 27 June 2026

London’s latest record-breaking heatwave, combined with the lack of air conditioning at the previous evening’s venue, turned this into the opening event of this year’s Spitalfields Festival. The air conditioning at this event in Metronome London (a small black-box venue forming part of a new building that seems to house elements of various out-of-London universities) certainly made itself felt, to the bizarre extent that the organisers emailed attendees to warn them to bring additional clothing, something that was apparently easier than anybody actually turning the air conditioning down! The concert featured a staging of three of Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre’s Cantates françoises sur des sujets tirez de l’Écriture à voix seule, et basse-continue, published in two volumes in 1708 and 1711, sometimes referred to as Cantates Bibliques.