Recap of Tarja and Nicolas Horvath's "Au Royaume des Rêves" concert in Limoges, France - 17th of July, 2026
Getting there turned out to be quite an adventure. I was supposed to take a train from Paris to Limoges on the day of the concert, but a few days beforehand, a severe heatwave caused a series of train cancellations, and mine was among them. I immediately secured a seat on a Bus trip as a backup, while also booking another train leaving very early in the morning. Then, at 1 a.m. the night before my departure, I received yet another cancellation notification. This time, severe storms had brought trees down onto the railway tracks. The first train from Paris was still running, but the connecting train had been replaced by buses. By then, I had completely lost confidence in the French railway system, so I decided to stick with the long bus trip instead. After almost six hours of travel, I finally arrived safely in Limoges.
The concert took place in an ice rink that had been transformed into a concert venue for a five-day classical music festival. Tarja wasn't the only artist performing that evening, as several other musicians were also part of the festival. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming.
The only downside was the temperature. There was no air conditioning inside the venue, and it was incredibly hot. The small paper fans sold at the entrance quickly became everyone's best friend. Tarja had a few fans blowing behind her, but they clearly weren't enough. She even mentioned the heat several times during the concert, and I genuinely worried that she might feel unwell, especially wearing such a beautiful outfit that covered her from head to toe. As for the performance itself, it was absolutely beautiful. The chemistry between Tarja and Nicolas Horvath was simply wonderful. He is an extraordinary pianist, and together they created something truly special.
We were also lucky enough to hear "Anemoia" live for the first time ever. Since it was the very first live performance, it understandably still needed a little polishing. You could tell Tarja was concentrating on the lyrics, and at the beginning it even felt as though the piano was slightly ahead of the song's natural pace. For a moment, it seemed a little challenging, there were also some technical issues, Tarja made some signs to technicians a couple of times during this song, but they quickly found their balance. Even so, I really enjoyed the piano-and-vocal arrangement. One of the evening's highlights was the incredible piano bridge Nicolas played during "Underneath." It was absolutely breathtaking and it added more value to the composition. We talked to Nicolas after the concert, and he told us that Tarja gave him total creative freedom to work on her songs.
The entire concert was professionally recorded, so I'm really hoping we'll eventually get either a live album or at least a video release.
I found myself in tears several times throughout the evening, especially during Tarja's beautiful rendition of Rammstein's "Ohne dich" and, of course, "Anemoia." It's actually very rare for me to cry during a Tarja concert. The last time it happened was at "Beauty and the Beat" in 2013, when Tarja performed "Swanheart," one of my all-time favorite Nightwish songs.
The audience was mostly made up of older concertgoers, and I'm not sure how familiar many of them were with Tarja's repertoire. However, I truly believe that by the end of the evening, many of them had been completely won over by our wonderful Tarja.
I've included a link to one of the fans who filmed several songs. Their YouTube videos are definitely worth watching if you're curious about the performance. I've also added a few short clips that I recorded myself, although I didn't film very much because I really wanted to be fully present and enjoy the moment : https://youtu.be/10BhyLrEeaE?is=XKS20ziuY55-haDb
Concert Programme :
- Tarja's Songs :
- The Archive of Lost Dreams
- Underneath
- I Walk Alone
- Ave Maria
- Anemoia.
- Astor Piazzolla : Ave Maria
- Traditional Finnish Songs (arranged by Ralf Gothóni) :
- Hilu, hilu
- Soittajappaimen
- Minun kultani kaunis on
- Toivo Kuula - Tuijotin tulehen kauan
- Jean Sibelius :
- Den första kyssen
- Var det en dröm
- Säf, säf, susa
- Nicolas piano interludes:
- Robert Schumann -Widmung
- Hugo Wolf- Verborgenheit
- Tarja covering other bands :
- Slipknot - Vermilion
- Rammstein - Ohne dich
- Linkin Park - Numb
- Nightwish : Kuolema tekee taiteilijan, Sleeping Sun.