LAETITIA GRIMALDI’s ALBUM OF FRENCH SONG

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

In OMBRES, the new BIS release, the French lyric soprano Laetitia Grimaldi teams up with the Israeli-South African pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz to bring out of obscure neglect twenty-two mélodies by nine French female composers.

The songs range from the quintessentially Romantic cantilena of all five of the songs of Mélanie Bonis that begin the album, to the lively-in-tempo Villanelle of Cécile Chaminade, to the exoticism of settings by Pauline Viardot-Garcia of texts of several Russian poets.

Among the composers featured in this recording, Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Cécile Chaminade are fairly familiar to those who love French salon music, while the names of Armande de Polignac, Marguerite Beclard d’Harcourt, Mélanie Bonis, Hélène-Frédérique de Faye-Jozin, Juliette Folville, Gabrielle Ferrari and Augusta Holmès are most surprising discoveries. The lyricists – French poets for the most part- are as unfamiliar as the composers save for the name of Victor Hugo.

In lesser hands, this assemblage of esoteric pièces d’occasion conceived for the artistic salons of 19th century Paris during the days of the Belle Époque could wear thin after one too many songs permeated with the same perfumed laid-back languor.  Yet here, with a voice that could melt the hardest of hearts, an absolute command of the French style, flawless idiomatic pronunciation, and immense musicality, the results that Laetitia Grimaldi serves up in good company with Ammiel Bushakevitz, her perfect partnering pianist are simply extraordinary.

Rafael de Acha            ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”