Performer: Les Lunaisiens, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Chœur de Femmes Audomaria de Saint-Omer, Adélaïde Stroesser
Conductor: Arnaud Marzorati
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Alpha
Catalogue: ALPHA887
Release: 2022
Size: 0.97 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. anon.: Dies irae
02. anon.: Merd’ v’là l’hiver (I)
03. Bruant: V’là l’choléra qu’arrive
04. Scotto, V: La vipère du trottoir
05. Popy: Spleen
06. anon.: Complainte de Fualdès
07. Waldteufel: Amour et printemps
08. Goublier: Filles d’ouvrier
09. Varney: La sérénade du pavé
10. Bernard: Ça fait peur aux oiseaux
11. Ducreux et Beretta: Complainte de paillasse
12. anon.: Soliloque du chanteur ambulant
13. Cui: Poèmes de Jean Richepin, Op. 44: No. 3, Les petiots
14. Gabaroche: Les nocturnes
15. anon.: La péronelle
16. anon.: Merd’ v’là l’hiver (II)
It was inevitable that the abundant discography of Les Lunaisiens would one day turn its attention to the Complainte des rues, a ‘lament’ that tells the dark and tragic story of the wretched nobodies of society who can only protest their misery and hunger! Merd’ v’là l’hiver!: these are the grim opening words of Les Soliloques du pauvre by the poet Jehan Rictus (1867-1933), a work which Arnaud Marzorati has made the focus of a programme whose repertory deals with homeless people, the working poor, prostitutes and abandoned children. For nothing was worse for street singers than the approach of wintry weather; already constantly chased away, they would have to sing their songs in taverns or seedy cafés, where they were not always welcome . . . These sombre tableaux constitute an essential part of the heritage of French chanson. But such laments become truly memorable thanks to the power of their performers; the greatest female artistes reigned supreme, each in her own era, by distilling misery, rage and love – Damia, Fréhel, and of course Édith Piaf. Stéphanie d’Oustrac, an incomparable interpreter of Bizet’s Carmen, takes on as to the manner born this new role as an insolent woman of the people.