Mélodies, voix mêlées, La Grande Guerre /Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Maciej Pikulski. Montpellier, le Corum

 Celebration of the Hundred Year Anniversary of the start of this atrocious episode of World War I on July 20 at the Corum  Opera Berlioz in Montpellier during the second part of the recital, introduced by Laurent Naouri:
I was there!
I discovered how two accomplished singers can reveal the beauty of this not so common musical repertoire of war poems disguised into love poems with an absolute sour and deep revolting taste, when the words are signed by Guillaume Apollinaire and the music by Francis Poulenc on the baritone side, and on the soprano side, Louise de Vilmorin for the poems.
 While the two voices intermingled on some poems like the crual Les Trois Oiseaux written by François Coppée with the soft Leo Delibes wrapping tunes which bite even more, I felt shattered.
If the first part of this recital was more conventional, with all the best of  French poetry put to music and sung world wide by  singers, the second part was outstanding for me, although less known.
 Both singers united,  so mutually involved to give a unique approach of this heartbreaking period.
The pianist was absolutely outstanding and made his voice sound also  unique in this trio.
I was deeply moved.

"Aussi bien que les cigales" became an outcry sung by Laurent Naouri rich and soft deep voice which got to some utterly violent cries aimed at these Southern people he met in the trenches, and as we were at the Corum, Montpellier,   a truly West Southern territory with a  strong Left wing tradition, where Jean Jaurès has his statue on a main square, where cicadas are typically heard during hot sunny  months,  where Southern people are also compared to cicadas, as according to Lafontaine and Esope, this insect sings  for fear of working, not like the dutiful ant, all considered, this outcry had lots of connotations in my mind.
 May be the Southern people Guillaume Apollinaire met the last year of the Great  War were not digging the trenches  as courageously as the other war companions, because they had the tragic vision of their end and prefered taking it easy.  The last outcry Laurent Naouri delivered at the loudest range of his voice was resounding like a disparate and definitive cry, in fact saying merely that even so,  the battle was ironically lost....so may be the cicadas  had better sing than dig themselves to death. Laurent Naouri at the end of this amazing crescendo seemed utterly and truly shaken. The pick for Natalie Dessay came with 'Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant' where her voice gave so many nuances on the words.
Came also to my mind all the dreadful news and visions of war we all have in mind now in some parts  of our world this summer 2014, which seems even worse than ever with the modern war equipment and the double language of war, expressions like 'la guerre propre'..... the Irony of War is distressing even more now.
Luckily I was with my younger granddaughter and had to quickly cheer myself up to face her questions which were more down to earth and somehow jolly like she admired the second dress better than the first and how gracefully Natalie moved while singing La Dame d'André, which were true to the reality remarks!
Les trois Oiseaux sung by both was an absolute achievement.
The first encore was like a refreshing delicatessen after a heavy second course... the sweetest of our French love duets ever written, Ophélie and Hamlet..."Doute de la lumière"... I guess they did not have the opportunity in their busy careers to sing these roles together, but now they can perform together and unite their skills and their true love for each other.
What a nice couple 'à la scène comme à la ville'!
Who said Natalie Dessay had finished with opera singing?

This concert will be on air here.(August 2nd, 12.30pm)

Back home, I went back to Guillaume Apollinaire's War poems and biography, as out of this entire programme he came relevant to me so well served by Poulenc.

I also remembered a time where I was considering to write a long essay on the music  of Wilffred Owen 's War poems based on acoustic analyses of sounds and rhythm.

I realised how ignorant I was and enjoyed reading this contribution from BBC radio programme on Guillaume Apollinaire, answering all my questionning after this concert.    

Montpellier is always worth travelling to for the music!

Many thanks to the uploader of this great duet with two smashing singers in their youth!