The Maxime Le Forestier Concert

Yesterday, not Friday as we had planned, Paul and I went to the Maxime Le Forestier concert at the Grand Rex in Paris. More about how I really screwed up later. 

The concert was wonderful. The first act was Daby Touré, a young singer with an absolutely crystal voice. He sang in French, in English, and in his own dialect. Listen to him! Then came Maxime le Forestier, who started out solo, with "Comme un arbre". I was already melting. His voice is just as clear and beautiful as it always was. Sometimes he sang solo, but most often he was joined on stage by young singers who either sang with him, or even solo. Even Adamo, who is by no means a newcomer, came out for a song. And Calogero sang "Les Jours Meilleurs" in duo, and "Mon Frère", solo. Beautiful! Daby Touré joined him for "Ambalaba" and "Né quelque part" and then started "San Francisco" in his own dialect, joined by Maxime and then the others, who all came out on stage. Of course there were other songs mixed in. There were some fantastic young women singers, too. 

I did something completely out of character for me. I was a fan. I printed a picture of S.G., from back in high school, before she became P.G. and wrote a letter explaining how we had a friend in common. We'll see if the production people actually give him the letter. I'm curious. In any case, as the audience sang "San Francisco", it felt funny singing the refrain. 

If any of you have a chance to catch this concert on tour, if it goes on tour, then go.

Now, for the story of how we almost missed it. 

Look at the date on the poster. January 27. It was announced as a one-night-only event. The kids gave us the tickets as a Christmas gift. You can imagine how excited I was. Paul, too, but not as much. In the seventies,  a newlywed in France, when I listened to the radio and Maxime Le Forestier was on all the time, especially "San Francisco", I was learning French. And he was one of the few singers I could understand. And as I understood, I liked the lyrics. My French is never going to be perfect, but Maxime Le Forestier played a big role in teaching it to me. So, the concert is on the 27th.

As soon as I got up, on the 27th, I went to look at the tickets to see what time the concert was. Shock. Our tickets were for the 26th! I was devastated. I wrote an apology to the kids. I moped all morning, through my art class. Aude suggested we go anyway and buy tickets from scalpers. I was ready to go with that idea, but when I got home, Emma told me she had been on the Internet and was waiting for an answer from someone who had posted his tickets, at cost. She also had found out there was another concert on Sunday, in case she didn't get a reply. Also, she'd be passing not far from the Rex and would inquire. Not long after she left, Claire called (from England) and said that she'd been on the phone with the head person at the Rex, Nanou, and had explained the situation. Nanou would be in touch with me if she could get us an exchange of tickets for Sunday. Then, Emma called from the Rex, a bit confused that Nanou was already aware of our predicament, but with the same message: Nanou was pretty sure she could get us in on Sunday. And if not, there were still seats for sale on Sunday. (Louis had also gotten in touch with his C.E. to see if there were still tickets available, and Anne was not yet aware of the situation because she hadn't seen the email, yet. )

Nanou called later and announced that the production company was sympathetic and would allow us to exchange seats. Yesterday, she led us to our new seats, way up in the upper balcony, with a perfect view of the stage. (I'm not posting pictures, because we were really too far away for that.)

My kids are the greatest. First for the wonderfully thoughtful gift and then for doing everything possible to correct my mistake.

A day of rest

It's been a busy week, starting with Claire and Aurelia's visit Friday to Monday and ending with Ken and Sandy from Monday to Friday. I took them to the airport before dawn this morning. OK, before dawn is not a big deal in winter, since dawn isn't until 8:30, but it sounds so early!

No complaints, though. It was a wonderful week. With Aurelia we mostly stayed home and went for walks in the neighborhood. Claire was out with her friends a lot, but Sunday afternoon was a family day. Louis and Gwen came here, as did Anne.
Monday morning I made a blanquette de veau (veal stew in white sauce) for lunch. I left home before lunch to pick up Ken and Sandy. I diligently checked the flight status before leaving and it was showing up with a 5-minute delay. There were no major traffic delays and I got to the airport about 10 minutes before the flight was due and spent a good deal of time finding a parking space. I got up to the welcome area for flight arrivals a little after the flight was due, but the flight was still not in. It was still expected at 12:30. At 1, it was still expected at 12:30! I went over to the information booth and asked if they had any better information and they told me it was now due just before 2:00! I remarked that their arrival board needed updating, since the plane had obviously not even taken off at the expected arrival time. Needless to day, Ken and Sandy did arrive and their baggage was the first off the plane, so we got home by 3:00. They had just enough time to say hello to Claire and meet Aurelia before Paul took those two to the airport for their flight while we had our lunch.
Jacques came over after work to say hello. After a weekend of cooking, I hadn't wanted to make another dinner. Plus, we had had a very late lunch, so I, for one, was not hungry. I had the perfect solution. Quenelles de brochet, which Wikipedia translates as pike quenelles, and I would translate quenelle as a big dumpling, in a fish soup. I didn't have to make anything. I bought the quenelles and the soup at the market from the fishmonger and she's the one who suggested cooking the quenelles in the soup and serving that way. It was a hit. Salad and then cheese and that was the meal. No work.
Tuesday we all went into Paris, but with different things to do. Paul left us to see his friends from work; I got off to go to Michel Cluzel to get some chocolat before going on to the library; and Ken and Sandy continued to the Grand Palais to try to see the Monet exhibit. Turns out the exhibit is by advance purchase only and is all sold out, so they saw the Bulgari exhibit instead. We went over to Jacques' for dinner, where we saw Julien and Gaetane and their children. It was Julien's birthday! Jean-Paul and Anne, other friends who know Ken and Sandy, came in for a before dinner drink. We miss Christine. Still, we had a good time, a good dinner and a good birthday celebration.
Jacques lent Paul his card for the Grand Palais, and we were able to take Ken and Sandy to the Monet exhibit that way. The exhibit was very crowded. Not at all like it was when I went with Rita. Paul and I left Ken and Sandy there because I had to get back for a dentist appointment and Paul had something else. We all met up later at Anne's with Louis and Gwen and went out for a family dinner nearby.

Yesterday, I went into Paris with Ken and Sandy and we went to the Marais. Had falafel for lunch on the Rue de Rosiers and then went to see what was on at the Museum of Jewish Art and History. They've rearranged the permanent exhibit since the last time I went there. It's better, less dense. I think we spent too much time in the permanent exhibit and didn't leave enough for the current exhibit of Felix Nussbaum. What a discovery! What a shame! By looking at the paintings you can see history unfolding -- from the seaside, happy scenes in the 1920s to the masks (like his friend, James Ensor) in the '30s and then premonitions of the concentration camps in the '40s. He died there only 40 years old. But we had to leave to meet Jacques at the Grand Palais for the France 1500 exhibit. For me, it was the second time and I was looking forward to seeing the Belle Ferronière again, but she'd been taken back to the Louvre! A pity. They could have at least put up a nice reproduction of it, but no. If you didn't see it before November 18, then you weren't going to get a glimpse. I felt sorry as I had encouraged the choice of that exhibit for that painting. The rest of the exhibit is still worth seeing. I was able to pay more attention to details this time. We had dinner at a pizzeria on the Champs Elysées and then met Paul at the Théatre des Champs Elysées, which is on Ave. Montaigne, near the Place d'Alma, not the Champs-Elysées, for a fantastic concert of Sibelius and Prokofiev, which I am listening to as I write the blog. It's available for listening for a month. Wish I could download it.

Jay Gottlieb Concert

What a wonderful evening of piano! Jay plays music that I might easily turn off if I heard it on the radio. I enjoy Copland, Bernstein, and Gershwin, but many of the early 20th century composers either make me cringe or just leave me indifferent. It's not the same in concert. First of all, you can feel the vibrations from the piano in your feet. You can see the intensity in Jay's facial expressions and the tenseness or fluidity of his hands. His program last night was centered around Jewish composers. It was the middle concert of three in honor of Viktor Ullman, a composer who died at Auschwitz and whose music was only recently discovered. Jay's program did not include any of Ullman's compositions though. Of course he was called back to the stage for some encores and played some Sondheim (whose A Little Night Music is coming to Paris, at last, next week) and Gershwin. As usual, the Gershwin at the end reminds me of my mother playing in the living room before dinner -- never misses. We went to one of Jay's concerts a couple of years ago with the kids and they felt it too.
Of course thinking of Jay makes me think of Beth that Jay reconnected me to. That was in 2007, I think, before I got on to facebook and found so many of my high school mates. Jay is a dear high school friend of Rita's; I went to a concert with Rita and she introduced me to Jay; I wrote to Jay to thank him and ask if he might know, or know of, Beth, MY high school friend, and he sent me back her address! On her birthday! Since I remembered it was her birthday, I dug out a picture from an old album of her birthday at my house, scanned it and sent it to her. Now we see each other on facebook mostly. I wouldn't miss a day of her links to art, poetry, and music.
Among other coincidences involving Jay, I met a flutist who knows him when I went to help Céline move in December. Céline is Derek's wife, Derek, my techwriter friend who died in October from the H1N1 flu. Derek and Ashley were both from Chicago, and somehow met here in Paris. I think it was talking about that "small world" coincidence that led me to tell her about my finding Beth through Jay, that she told me she knew Jay! Definitely a small world!
Other news
Well, not news, but just other stuff. I saw a flyer at the American Library for a Don McClean concert in April at the Cigale.  Since his repertoire is enormous and not limited to American Pie (you can listen to it there), I think I'd like to go to it. On the other side of the flyer was the announcement of Kevin Costner (yes, the actor) performing on Feb. 22.
My back is allowing me to go on walks again! On Wednesday, we had a pleasant fast-paced stroll along the Seine from the Ile aux Cygnes, where the mini Statue of Liberty is, to the Jardin des Plantes. I forgot to take my camera :-(