It's pretty awesome that song was performed in the midst of a (heavy) symphonic metal concert.

Floor can sing high as we know,but her low range is just gold.

A stunning setting by Pergolesi. Simone and Floor were awesome. I really liked hearing your reflections on the text - I had not realized the connection to Luke 2:33-35 (my French isn't that great but I got some of it )

Thank you for taking the time to analyze the text and for giving your take on it. I really loved all of that, and of course the beautiful performance of it. Floor is one of my favorites as well. Also, thank you for the English subtitles. This was wonderful. I look forward to more of your reviews!

A German Atheist watches a French speaking Friar reacting to two awesome Singers from the Netherland, performing an old Italian Poem...with English Subtitles. What a time to be alive..

1. The performance of Floor and Simone was stellar and I had watched them perform many times. 2. I am surprised in a way and then not that you would enjoy music of the metal genre. 3. I very much enjoyed hearing the explanation of the text. I must admit that I was raised Southern Baptist and did not have much exposure to other faiths, but now I find myself in a world that has not only polarized our politics but serves to pit one persons faith against another. I find myself not shaken in my faith in God but in the people claiming to know and serve God. So I have found your videos refreshing. Please continue.

Merci beaucoup! Your analysis deepens the experience of this magical rendition ánd is giving the chance to practice my French in a lovely way! Regards from The Netherlands!

I love all this knowledge !! thanks Prince.

je pense que la visibilité de ce texte est plus sur la sensibilité que sur le genre ,merci a toi pour l explicité merci pour ta sincérités

God Bless you my brother. Thank you for sharing this one.

Amazing...Hail Maria...bendita seas madre...Floor.and Simone is the perfection...beautiful.voices❤

THANK YOU !

Merci beaucoup : )

Thoroughly enjoyed the presentation of the songs origins!! When you talked of the lines or words being sung twice it did not surprise me at all considering it was a baroque piece where this is common place, prime examples are Handel's works!! In saying that it reminded me of one of my favourite duets from Handel's Theodora Act 2 scene 5 " to thee, thou glorious son of worth" . Merci pour une réaction informative!!

A great song it is. I think al lot of people misunderstand the Metal lovers. Because in many cases they do have an allround musical taste. I myself love the bombastic and heavyness of Symphonic metal, but have an equal love for classical music. So that an concert full of meta;heads can also appreciate this kind of musicis really no surprise to me. With Epica, you know what you are in for. Classical and also filmmusic ( they are big fans of Hans Zimmer, for instance) are part of heir musical library.

Très belle réflexion, pour ces deux magnifiques voix et ce texte

Wow! What a beautiful & touching explanation, with deep feeling. The song brings me to tears every time, as a passionate lover of music, but now it will even more so having an understanding of its meaning. I am a mother of two children in their 20s. My son is 27 & the mere idea of watching something so horrific done to him shreds my heart. Poor Mary. Factual or fictional, my heart and tears go out to her, and all mothers who suffer the loss of the child whose life she held within her. There is, IMO, no human relationship so intimate as that of a mother-to-be and her unborn child. I knew my kids before they were born, and still am not surprised by their personalities and hearts. I felt them developing while they were in my womb. Aagghh! The pain shared in this song, and more so, the poem, is unimaginable. Whether the Bible is taken by someone as literal or aa a story full of metaphors, the fact remains here that the suffering of a mother whose child has been or is being unjustly harmed, especially at the hand of violence is just as real and relevant now as it was over 2000 years ago.

Probably the best female duet

Merci père Guylain.

Cheers from the Netherlands :) !

Floor Jansen , supreme soprano, supreme singer metal, amazing, powerfull

Sorry friend, i dont understand you, but i feel you love great music thanks.. greetings from northern germany 🤗👍

One of the first times among any music reviews that I find the contemplation of the text leading to a resolve to extend it into a religious meditation. Fitting the time and the situation for sure. On a light note, it makes me wonder that Floor actually sings the mezzo part in this piece, although Simone was initially the one who was called a "mezzo soprano". :)) Shows you two things: 1) voices change over time (Simone's has become much lighter though strong), and 2) Floor can sing anything. As the youth say, duh.

2 divas

An enjoyable and touching listen/read. In the event you have not run across it yet, there is a Christmas concert held in Finland featuring heavy metal bands delivering a variety of music, including Christmas carols. The event is held for charity and is called Raskasta Joulua (Heavy Christmas). With this video being about motherhood and suffering, it's only fitting that Floor should sing "O Holy Night" in Finnish while visibly very pregnant: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r9NhisZmydO5iZc.html She also has sung at this concert with Marko, delivering a very touching 'Ave Maria": kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q9pmqMmml6m0fps.html One of the nice gestures from this performance: the simple, white dress that Floor is wearing, is significant. She did not want to appear at such an event wearing something extravagant, so she went to a thrift shop and bought this second-hand dress for the occasion.

Now I want to hear them sing all couplets so you can give us the full analyzation.

It's an interesting thing how the sequences came to be. You see, medieval monks had a hard time remembering those long and ornate melodic lines that often fell on just one vowel. There were Ordinariums that sounded like Kyrie-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-eleison, with a long melody on that single "e". So in order to help themselves memorize it, they came up with all sorts of syllabic texts that fit the part, such as Kyrie pater ingenite, fons bonitatis a quia omnia bona cunta procedunt eleison. This was called a "Tropus". The same thing happened with the long and ornate "a" vowel at the end of the Alleluia (the so called Jubilus). Later these syllabic texts were separated from the Alleluia and sang as a distinct part. The name Sequence comes from Latin seguire, which means to follow (because it follows the Alleluia). It got to a point where there were over 1500 different sequences sung in different regions and churches all over Europe. The Synod of Trident limited their number to four: the Dies Irae, the Lauda Sion, the Victimae paschali laudes and the Veni Sancte Spiritus. Later the Stabat Mater was also allowed. To my knowledge, since the Second Vatican Council churches are free to sing optionally any of the old sequences and some of them do, like the Christmas sequence "Grates nunc omnes reddamus". A sequence is typically made up by stanzas of three verses each, and an AAB rhyme structure (Example, this one: Stabat Mater dolorosa/ Juxta crucem lacrymosa/dum pendebat Filius... Cujus animam gementem/contristatam et dolentem/pertransivit gladius... etc.)

Hi Guylain, there is another great song from the same concert with with these two ladies, drop this into youtube search: Epica - Sancta Terra (feat Floor Jansen) Live Retrospect show

Such a beautiful performance! Honestly, I would love to see Floor Jansen, Simone Simons, or Tarja Turunen perform a rendition of the hymn "Asperges Me"...actually any of the Latin Hymns would be cool. If I remember, somewhere on KZfaq is a video of Marco Hietala and Tarja singing Ave Maria...it was beautiful. Also, check out Tarja's version of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" Edit: Have you heard of the band Theocracy? I would love to see your thoughts on their song's "Bethlehem" and "I Am".

My Queen doing one of her casual mass healing sessions...

Je trouve votre vidéo assez tard, deux ans après sa publication. Et je dois dire que grace à la technique (yotube) votre analyse ne perdra jamais de l'actualité et de la valeur. Je dois vous remercier d'enrichir cette performance tellement qu'elle change complètement son caractère. Très bien fait. Felicitations. Saludos desde México.

I think metal-fans are amongst the musically most sophisticated listeners. They not just listen to what by professional musicians are considered to be amongst the finest musicians in the music industry, they are really receptive to different styles, and what could be more different than metal if not a late baroque sacred work, performed here to perfection by Simone and Floor. You could almost hear a pin drop during the silences in the music. Pergelosi really penned down a masterpiece with his "Stabat Mater". The piece performed here - "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" - only is the first movement of in total twelve movements based on the poem of Jacopone da Todi. Pergolesi composed it during his final illness from tuberculosis in a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli and managed to finish it right before his death in 1736 at the age of 26.

Is next reaction Ave Maria with Floor Jansen and Marco Hietala?

Floor sang the alto and Simone sang the soprano part.

This can only happen in a Metal concert. It is such a shame the stigma we have as metalheads. Evil devil worshippers...it is so far from the truth. Yes the lyrics have always a deeper meaning in Metal. About struggle, wars, humanity etc. Can you see rap or R&B fans listening and loving this music? Most metalheads love to listen to classical music, that is why it goes so well together. The poem is heartbreaking and so emotional. As a mother of three girls I can't imagine the suffering and inhuman pain Maria must have felt, seeing her child dying slowly in agony on the cross. For me this poem is of course about the suffering of Maria, but it makes me think about all the mothers who suffered and suffer in this world, by losing their child. The thought alone to me is unbearable. Thank you sir, for bringing this under the attention of your audience. Simone and Fleur (both Dutch and studied together at the rock academy and lived together in a studente house) are both mothers of young children, so this touched them as well.

I believe Simone was pregnant at the time of this concert and Floor had her child not that long before, so they are both mothers (or soon to be); gives this song a bit more meaning for me. Gorgeous.

Two years ago you published it, and I think I have an anwer: There is no answer. It might be a cop out but however you adjust the value life will cheat. I understand the willingness to solve the riddle and, at the same time, the understand the riddle is void of solving. So, does that help? I hope it won't, solving is a task for the ages.

React to The Kingdom of heave official from Epica

Tarja Turunen " Ave Maria " Paolo Tosti from the album "Ave Maria En Plein Air "

How can we be insensitive to unjust deaths? Do we not feel for the mothers? And what of those who cannot visit their imprisoned children? Thank you for your compassion.

I allow myself to come with an analysis, beyond the musical one. English is not my mother tongue so I hope I am properly understood in what I say. Well, from my point of view the fact that they included this song in the middle of a rock concert is a bridge, a hand outstretched by the world of rock, free spirit and without constraints, often blamed by the church and its representatives, to the world sacred. It is I believe a message "we understand you and respect you even if we do not always agree with some aspects of your world, you should do the same to us." Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I see it.

An whole hall full of symphonic metalheads listened silently - without any "boos" or "go home" yells - I just wonder If this would go thru in pop-consert?

Interestingly enough, it would seem that this song is almost describing Mary's great disappointment, dismay, disgust and desperation at the view in front of her. Perhaps she did not think it would come to this? Regardless of our beliefs, this poet has ensured that we can feel her pain and agony. I say that is interesting because there is another song from this concert that also conveys a feeling of disappointment, dismay, disgust and desperation. The song, _Sancta Terra,_ is sung from the perspective of a suicide bomber who thinks he is going to heaven, only to be disappointed to end up elsewhere. And, although one wants to hate him, the poet again enshrines this criminal's agony in a palpable way. You can almost feel his agony, just as you could feel Mary's agony.

I guess you are in the Vatican here, during this video. I just wonder if you have access to their library, and if so, is there a gospel by Maria Magdalena? Or have I read to many Dan Brown books?

Pergolèse a écrit cette hymne alors qu'il se savait près de mourir de la tuberculose à 26 ans. On peut se demander s'il ne projette pas aussi de sa tristesse dans la musique alors qu'il songe à sa mort prochaine.

There is something hidden there Simone was pregnant and was to become a mother for the first time.

Shouldn´t CRUCEM be pronounced CRUKEM in classical latin? Well, of course, this is a 13th century poem, so it was ecclesiastical latin.

Tx for the excellent reaction, would love to see you react to Floor Jansen and Henk Poort performing Phantom Of The Opera | Beste Zangers 2019 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ptJzhsab26qzeoE.html

aimez vos réactions .. vous devriez réagir à la grande soprano lyrique Tarja Turunen. .la première chanteuse de Nightwish ...kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZtmTYLl_1da8mKc.html ...kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e7mcrM2C0Z-UoGQ.html

Bonjour. Bien qu'étant athée convaincu, j'ai suivi votre réaction avec attention. J'ai l'habitude de "sentir" une personne à travers ses mouvements corporels. Vous avez constaté, comme moi, que la majorité du poème était absente. Ce qui est normal au vu du temps "imparti ". Avez-vous observé le public ? 5 min. avant le Mater Dolorosa, le délire des métalleux. Pdt le Mater, un silence intégral. Un respect total de ce chant. Croyez-moi, Epica n'est pas le créateur de ce style. D'autres groupes très agressifs ont fait de même, le silence était là.. Je vous ai vu curieux musicalement, mais surpris par la répétition du verset..pq revenir sur le contenu du poème, voyant qu'avec 1 ou 2 versets, la communion était totale ? Les 2 chants suivants ont été très calmes, comme dans une continuité.. Sancta terra est apparu plus tard... Epica et Nightwish sont 2 groupes de métal symphoniques très connus qui, à eux seuls peuvent tout se permettre devant leurs fans..... Même les plus agressifs... Je vous conseille l'écoute de certains morceaux live de Nightwish dont les paroles sont poignantes...."the poet and the pendulum" vous touchera...