Episode 44. Gl’amour, Part Deux (The Invaders)

Episode 44. Gl’amour, Part Deux (The Invaders)

Episode 44 – Gl’amour, Part Deux: The Invaders

Aux armes, citoyens! We have received advance warning that an army of foreigners masking as French speakers are storming the artistic gates, so to speak, and attempting to usurp France’s national artistic identity. Strangely, many of the invaders are operatic tenors, though they are accompanied by a coterie of vivandières singing popular music, all in French, no matter what their native tongues. Last week’s celebration of French glamour is today compromised, sullied, and usurped by all manner of unwelcome albeit glamorous guests, led by the New Zealander Frances Alda and buttressed by the American Eleanor Steber, fresh from celebrating her birthday this past week. Some of these figures masquerade more convincingly as actual French persons, but make no mistake, whether they be deceptive Canadians (Léopold Simoneau, Raoul Jobin, Richard Verreau), interloping Belgians (André d’Arkor), unwelcome Italians (the shocking Franco Corelli, the mysterious Dalida, and the dreaded Mirella Freni), subsersive Spaniards (Miguel Villabella, Alfredo Kraus, Tony Poncet) bullying Brazilians (Elis Regina), sneaky Swedes (Nicolai Gedda), denizens of the dreaded United Kingdom (Stuart Burrows, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Annie Lennox), Germans of nefarious intent (Marlene Dietrich, Daniel Behle), questionable Australians (Albert Lance, traveling incognito), suspicious Russians (Joseph Rogatchewsky), or worst of all, Americans intent on conquest (Barbara Hendricks, Eartha Kitt, Barbra Streisand, Muriel Smith, and even the spotlight-stealing Daniel Gundlach), these characters are all intent on destroying France’s language and music and must be thwarted at all costs, no matter how appealing their songs might appear to be. Finally, following the heroic actions of Georges Thill, France re-asserts her right to her own repertoire. But it seems that the damage has been done, for Natalie Dessay, Françoise Hardy, and even the formerly trustworthy Hugues Aufray, now seem only interested in singing American pop songs, albeit in French. All in all, an episode packed with intrigue, deception, and glorious singing!

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle: La Marseillaise. Frances Alda; Metropolitan Opera Chorus [rec. 1 June 1917]

Émile Paladilhe: Psyché. Arthur Endrèze; Reynaldo Hahn [rec. 1937]

Louiguy, Edith Piaf: La vie en rose. Daniel Gundlach; Lloyd Arriola [NYC 25 October 2015]

Hector Berlioz: Zaïde. Eleanor Steber; Jean Morel, Columbia Symphony Orchestra [rec. 1953]

Alfred Bachelet: Chère nuit. Eleanor Steber, James Quillian [rec. May 1941]

Charles Gounod: Ah, lève-toi soleil (Roméo et Juliette). Franco Corelli; Francesco Molnari-Pradelli [live 16 October 1967]

Armand Canfora, Jo Basile, Michel Jourdan: Non … c’est rien [Free Again]. Barbra Streisand; Michel Legrand [rec. 1966]

Jacques Offenbach: Ô Dieu, de quelle ivresse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann). Raoul Jobin; André Cluytens; Orchestre du Théâtre National de l’Opéra-Comique [rec. 1948]

Jean Lenoir: Parlez-moi d’amour. Dalida; Raymond Lefèvre et son Orchestre [rec. 1961]

Georges Bizet: Je crois entendre encore (Les Pêcheurs de perles). Daniel Behle [Oslo: Queen Sonja International Vocal Competition (26 August 2005)]

Charles Chaplin, Pierre Delanoë: C’est ma chanson [This Is My Song]. Petula Clark [rec. 1967]

Franz Lehár: Je t’ai donné mon Coeur (Le Pays du Sourire). Tony Poncet, Jésus Etcheverry, Grand Orchestre et Choeurs René Alix [rec. 1957]

Carole King, Michèle Vendôme [after Gerry Goffin]: Demain tu peux changer [Will You Love Me Tomorrow]. Dusty Springfield [rec. 1965]

Frédéric Chopin, Jean Loysel, arr. André Grassi: L’ombre s’enfuit [Tristesse]. Richard Verreau, André Grassi, RCA Victor Concert Orchestra [rec. 1961]

Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prévert: Les feuilles mortes. Daniel Gundlach; Daniel Beckwith [recorded Town Hall, NYC, 07.2006]

Henri Duparc: Au pays où se fait la guerre. Léopold Simoneau; Allen Rogers [rec. 1958]

Henri Duparc: Chanson triste. Muriel Smith [pianist and recording date unknown]

Henri Betti, André Hornez: C’est si bon. Eartha Kitt; Henri René and His Orchestra [rec. 1953]

Gabriel Fauré: Sylvie, Op. 6/3. Stuart Burrows; John Constable [rec. 1971]

Frank Churchill, Francis Salabert [after Larry Morey]: Un jour mon prince viendra (Blanche-Neige et les sept Nains). Barbara Hendricks; Jonathan Tunick [rec. 1996]

Charles Gounod: Nuit d’hymenée (Roméo et Juliette) [excerpt]. Alfredo Kraus, Mirella Freni; Jean Fournet [Chicago 27 November 1981]

Michel Legrand, Jacques Demy: Récit de Cassard (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg). Elis Regina [rec. 1969]

Jules Massenet: Un autre est son époux (Werther). Albert Lance; Jean Fournet [Buenos Aires: Teatro Colón, June 1965]

Henri Salvador, René Rouzaud: Cherche la rose. Marlene Dietrich [recorded 1962]

François Adrien Boieldieu: Viens, gentile dame (La dame blanche). André d’Arkor [rec. 1931]

Giacomo Puccini: O douces mains (Tosca). Joseph Rogatchewsky; Elie Cohen [rec. 1928]

Édouard Lalo: Vainement, ma bien-aimée (Le Roi d’Ys). Nicolai Gedda; Georges Prêtre, Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française [rec. 1963]

Adolphe Adam: Mes amis, écoutez l’histoire (Le Postillon de Longjumeau). Miguel Villabella; Godfroy Andolfi [rec. 1934]

Françoise Hardy, Roger Samyn: Tous les garçons et les filles. Eurythmics [Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart] [rec. 1985]

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle: La Marseillaise. Georges Thill; Pierre Dupont, La Musique de la Garde Républicaine avec Choeurs [rec. 1931]

Arnold Goland, Serge Gainsbourg [after Jack Gold]: Comment te dire adieu [It Hurts to Say Goodbye]. Françoise Hardy [rec. 1968]

Thelonious Monk, Bernard Hanighen, Charles Cootie Williams, Claude Nougaro, arr. Pierre Boussaguet: Autour de minuit [Round Midnight]. Natalie Dessay; Claire Gibault, Paris Mozart Orchestra [rec. 2016]

Bob Dylan, Hugues Aufray: Dans le souffle du vent [Blowin’ in the Wind]. [rec. 1995]