Summer day 1: Faites de la Musique...

Musiques en Fête 2016 (teaser) par france3
Musiques en Fête 2016 (teaser) par france3
Created on June 1st 1982, La Fête de la Musique is celebrated everywhere in France either tonight or last night!  On our 3rd Channel there was in Orange a huge popular night with a mixture of opera arias and popular songs with two conductors one dedicated to opera, Luciano Acocella and the second one for popular songs: Didier Benetti. Of course there were a nice display of the younger generation of French singers, some we can see more on our Southern stages like the tenor Forian Laconi or the soprano Ludivine Gombert. Julie Fuchs is already well known, it will be the case after this 5th Musiques en Fête for Gabrielle Philiponet and Vannina Santoni. Rossini's cats' aria  was the best moment for me! They made me laugh and were really witty and nice when acting! Lots of fun in their rendition ! I wondered why Florian Sampey chose Hamlet's 'O vin dissippe la tristesse' which did not suit his voice and was  delivered too seriously . A pity, because in a lighter repertoire, Rossini for instance with Barbieri and Figaro he would have really be brighter.
The two  older singers E. jaho and B. Uria Monzon gave beautiful renditions but sounded at times rather on the limits of their voices. The opera arias were plenty but not always fine... I enjoyed the discovery of the Russian Bass  Vitalij Kowaljow  when he sang Tchaikovsky's Iolantha . The pop songs were chosen with some taste, I liked a heartful homage to Jacques Brel with.Michael Gregorio

Brel : le port d'Amsterdam, Michaël Gregorio - Musiques en fête
.. and also a rather sweet and moving Andrew Lloyd WEBBER's Cats, "Memory" with Ludivine Gombert and l’Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, conducted by Didier Benetti.

Webber : Cats, Ludivine Gombert - Musiques en fête