PARIS - PERFORMED BY CHRISTINE BOVILL.
The centre of Cambridge became the La Place de l'étoile on Saturday night. The magical transformation was effected by the performance of the outstanding chanteuse Christine Bovill. Returning after her wonderful Piaf gig at the Town and Gown in March, she delighted the full-house audience with a tribute to the chanson de Paris. Bovill is the consummate artist and is made for this unique brand of musical storytelling. ‘The chanson is like a three-act play’ she told the audience. Each carefully chosen song, from the masters of the genre, came with a snippet of fascinating background. We learnt that Charles Trenet was one of the first writer-performers of the Gallic art and that his torch song, ‘La Mer’ is both an evocation of the Mediterranean and a tribute to his mother (a French pun that even this language dunce could understand).
Bovill ranged through the works of other great artists: Jacques Brel, Gilbert Bécaud, Barbara, and Charles Aznavour. We learnt of her awkward adolescence in Glasgow and her lifelong love affair with the French language gleaned from listening to Piaf on her portable record player.
She has the charisma and stage presence of an actor and the voice to fill a stadium if need be. Her range is astonishing – sweet as a Drambuie, gravelly as the Seine, soft as a ripe Camembert or hugely belting like the very sounds of urban Paris. All these voices adapted to not just singing but selling the songs she clearly loves. Her performance is indeed a love letter to the chanson. She sparkles and engages the audience with her warm Scots voice suddenly shifting gear into 100% bittersweet tones in songs like Brel’s ‘Amsterdam’, an earthy evocation of sex-starved mariners on the pull. Her all-too short gig (it raced by) came to a climax with some of Piaf’s hits; Milord and of course, No Regrets. On the way we were entranced by Tous Les Visages de L’Amour (is there a more haunting song?), and mesmerised in her rendition of Kurt Weill’s Bilbao Song.
It would be magnifique if Christine Bovill came to the Town and Gown as a regular – she clearly has won a loyal audience who were entranced by the power of her voice and theatrical delivery, her warm-hearted personal anecdotes and a passion to share in her affection for the songs. Let there be no doubt that for 75 minutes, central Cambridge became the Place de l'étoile – the place of a star: Madame Bovill.
STOP PRESS ..ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE TOWN AND GOWN - SHE’S BACK ON 3 SEPTEMBER
CHRISTINE BOVILL'S PARIS FROM PIAF TO POP
3rd September | 7:30pm | Tickets £15
Christine Bovill’s award winning “Paris” established her reputation as one of Europe’s finest interpreters of French Song. In her new show, she travels into the 60’s and the Americanisation of French music: le yé-yé. A time of great cultural change in France, would the high art of chanson survive….?
This new show offers a sexy and delicious celebration of the Golden age of French Song and how it evolved during the Swinging Sixties. Singing in both French and English she honours many stars including Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg and Francoise Hardy.
