Posts

Showing posts with the label Paris

The Songs & The Plays - Kean on Shakespeare

-
Image
The Songs & The Plays Listen on Youtube Love’s Labours Lost (1593-94) A revised and polished version of this play was presented for Queen Elizabeth I and her court at Christmas 1598. However the elevated language and subject matter of the drama suggests it was always intended for a sophisticated and highly literate audience. There are two parallel plots – one ‘high’ comedy and one ‘low’ comedy. In the high comedy the King of Navarre and his friends make a pact to ‘fast and study’ and to have no contact with women for three years. No sooner have they agreed than the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies in waiting arrive to discuss ‘state matters’. Inevitably the King falls in love with the Princess and his friends with the French ladies in waiting. The Gentlemen find loophole in their vows and woo and win women with a dance. The Ladies become aware of their broken vows and treat the noblemen with scorn. In the low comedy the page Moth and the clown Costard ridicule the exaggerated m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Claude Debussy - A Short Biography & Background to the Trois Chansons de Bilitis

-
Image
  Claude Debussy ( 1862 – 1918) His parents were running a china shop in St Germain-en-Laye, just outside Paris, when Achille Claude was born on the 22 nd of August 1862. His birthplace, a C17th building in two parts, joined by a beautiful balustrade staircase, is now the Maison Claude Debussy. The ground floor now houses the Office de Tourisme and the first floor is a museum dedicated to Debussy. Personal souvenirs, letters, photographs, manuscripts and ornaments reflecting his life, tastes and personality were bequeathed to the museum by his daughter-in-law. An auditorium room on the second floor regularly presents various recitals, readings and lectures on Debussy and other composers and the town holds a festival every year in his honour. A fitting tribute to one of France’s most influential and popular composers. His childhood was very unsettled; his father changed jobs many times and was imprisoned for a short time after Commune of 1871 for his revolutionary activities....
Post a Comment
Read more

La Belle France - A Multi-Media Presentation - Background

-
Image
La Belle France This unique multi-media performance combines the professional talents of three Lancashire artists in music and images to bring a true flavour of France. The themes of gardens, flowers, animals and love are typically French and the most appealing to British Francophiles. This presentation offers something for everyone, and a peek over the fence at our nearest European neighbours. The recital by Oldham born mezzo-soprano Helena Kean and pianist Graham Jackson, from Preston, includes romantic and impressionist songs by Duparc, Debussy, Ravel and Fauré as well as 20th century pieces by Poulenc, Milhaud and Satie .  This relaxing journey into French Song will take you from the Grand Boulevards of the Belle Époque and afternoon promenades along the river Seine, to the smoky cabarets and the bohemian cafés of the artists of Montmartre. The Impressionist painter Monet and his world famous garden at Giverny is the subject of one of the lectures given by Brenda Kean. The ...
Post a Comment
Read more

French Art Song - Mélodie

-
Image
  Mélodie French ‘mélodie’ or art song is the general term for songs for solo voice with piano accompaniment, by composers like Fauré, Debussy and Duparc, who established the intrinsic quality of French Mélodie as distinctive from German Lied.  Although the musical scene in Paris has always been essentially cosmopolitan, with artistic invasions from many countries, French music has preserved certain national characteristics in style and content, which are easily recognized, though not easily defined. From 1850 to 1900, French music and culture was defending itself against the disruptions of war and political upheaval. French Song reached its zenith during the period known as ‘La Belle Époque’. The lyricism of the composers Berlioz and Gounod, brought new colour and character to French music, with a flavour of orientalism.  By the time Paris hosted the World Exhibition in 1889, most artists and poets were also looking to the East for imagery and inspiration. The exotic...
Post a Comment
Read more