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THE Stage
Performances REVIEWS
From a Jazz trio to a Symphony Orchestra, from an intimate supper club
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VARIETY
Raquel Bitton Sings: Edith Piaf - Her Story, Her Songs
By ROBERT L. DANIELS, January 19, 2000
Presented inhouse. Arrangements, orchestrations, Bob Holloway.
Musical director, Bill Keck. Reviewed Jan. 15, 2000.
-The stance was familiar: legs rigidly astride, hands on hips
and fingers splayed below the waist. Diminutive, with cropped
hair and wearing a plain black dress, Raquel Bitton took center stage and re-created
the imagery and the magic of the legendary French chanteuse
Edith Piaf. Bitton, who discovered Piaf's repertoire in 1982, has subsequently shaped
and molded the material into a thrilling program of song that
goes beyond imitation. Bitton infuses her performances with
her own musical richness and instinctive sense of drama and
storytelling.
The singer, accustomed to performing with a trio in small
clubs, now has the luxury of a full concert orchestra, and her
sold-out Carnegie Hall debut kicks off a six-city tour at major concert halls in the U.S.
and Canada.
Linking the songs with a tastefully brief, informative and
often amusing biographical narrative, Bitton follows Piaf's
career from her early years as a youthful Paris street singer and cabaret performer to world
fame as an international concert artist.
While the program was sung almost entirely in French, the
songs reflected the joy, pain and courage of the Little
Sparrow with heartbreaking clarity. Bitton's voice is bold and
clear and lacks the familiar wobbly vibrato associated with
Piaf.
"J'm'en fous pas mal" ("I Should Care")
had a bracing big-band swing sound accented by an infectious
trumpet growl. Bitton noted Piaf's first love affair - a
one-night stand, actually - with the strident torch classic
"Mon Legionnaire," sang gypsy folklore with "Le
Chemin des Forains," and illustrated the lonely plight of ladies of the evening with
"The Accordion Player." These pieces, among others,
were highlighted by flavorful period
accordion and guitar accompaniment, the latter reflecting the
shimmering innovative jazz structure of Django Reinhardt, who
recorded with Piaf.
Out of the narrative arose bittersweet remembrances of Piaf's
friends and lovers, among whom were film star Marlene
Dietrich, boxer Marcel Cerdan - who was tragically killed in a
plane crash - and Jean Cocteau, the author and playwright who dreaded a world without Piaf, and succumbed on
the same day as the singer in 1963.
The program, which included nearly two dozen selections,
peaked with the all-too-familiar Piaf classics. The generous
invitation of a streetwalker,
"Milord," was followed by "Under Paris
Skies," "Padam Padam," "Hymne a l'amour"
(familiarly called "If You Love Me, Really Love Me")
and the classic "Non je regrette rien" (I Have No
Regrets).
The encore, as if we didn't know, was the enduring "La
Vie En Rose." "Did you think I wouldn't sing
it?" purred the playful Bitton, who was overwhelmed by
the capacity crowd, and thanked the brave patrons in the far
reaches of the top balcony, adding, "You risked your life
for me!"
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