When
Sun 6th June 2pm Sinclair’s Gully Winery Sun 13th June 3:30pm The Jade 90 mins |
La Chanson was originally mounted for the 2014 Cabaret Fringe at the Alliance Francaise d’Adelaide and sold out. It was subsequently commissioned by the Mayor of Unley for Harmony Day celebrations.
A 75 minute ride through a100 years of recent French culture, featuring 12 songs that in various ways capture the particular ethos of their time. Supplemented by projected images and song subtitles.
La Chanson sets off with its historical meaning.
The first musical item dates from 1914, an example of Chanson realiste, performed mainly by women and concerning the lives of Paris’ poor and working classes.
The show observes sequential changes in the political and cultural landscape and alludes in passing to events and phenomena such as:
- Early 20th century art movements
- the jazz age in Paris
- two World Wars and the Great Depression
- iconic singer-songwriter Charles Trenet being tried for Nazi collaboration
- the 1940’s Quiet Revolution in Quebec
- Belgian Jacques Brel
- Edith Piaf
- 1950s nouvelle vague film-makers and Brigitte Bardot
- France’s Western world precedence during 1960s in film, fashion, social mores
- May ’68 Paris riots, war in former colony of Vietnam, Algeria’s War of Independence
- musical phenomenon of the Eurovision Song Contest and 60’s French pop music ye-ye
- American influence and globalisation challenging France’s proud art of savoir vivre
- female emancipation
- 1980s: La Fete de la Musique adopted worldwide, Plastic Bertrand’s Ca Plane Pour Moi hit in Australia
- Chanteurs sans Frontieres (Singers Without Borders)
- Italian actress/model/singer Carla Bruni marrying President of France and continuing her career
La Chanson’s content is educationally rich, its flavour light and fun.
