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But LaFreniere’s imagination, alluringly vivid, seems to be the spark that elevates her technique — especially in parts like Firebird, the Queen in “The Cage” and Helena in “Midsummer.”

It’s true, Les Siècles can produce sounds that amply reprise the shock of the new: the serrated edges of their “Orgie de Brigands” in Berlioz’s “Harold en Italie”; the fluttering airiness of parts of Stravinsky’s “Firebird”; the sultry, almost menacing haze of their “Nuages,” from Debussy’s “Nocturnes.”

So when you start the beginning of “The Firebird,” the double basses with gut string pizzicato, and then suddenly the chorale of the trombones, with these tiny, trombones — my God!

Firebird - the code name used by the Martinez family when it began looking for a buyer and adopted by Karns - also owns Snuffer’s Restaurant & Bar and Village Burger Bar.

Firebird — the code name used by the Martinez family when it began looking for a buyer and adopted by Karns — also owns Snuffer’s Restaurant & Bar and Village Burger Bar.