Theater Review

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Edith Piaf (A play-Biography, with songs.) by Pam Gems
  Landestheater Detmold, 28.04.04
 
  A good production. A very good production.
  I don't know where the theater found this production, but it was a touching piece. (And I could only understand half: Half the German speaking, and half the French songs.) And the title role was portrayed by one of my favorite singers here: Ulli. (I don't know her proper name, much less how to spell it. -But she's the one I really like in the roll of Eponine in Les Miserables.)
  It was a touching story of a life... with fame, and Success, combined with inner failure, and loss. And I don't know how to take the opening line, and the closing song: "Je ne regrette rien." (I regret nothing.) In a life so fraught with worries, how could that be? (and the last line of the song explained "Aujourd'hui commencé avec toi." -but then, she never could keep her loves, and fate always left her bereft. Is it an acceptance of that; that nothing is permanent, and if she gets to start just one day, One single day with a love in her arms, she regrets nothing. Could that be what is being said?)
  Her pathos was well done, and not over done. And the amusing parts fit well. The alchoholl, drugs, and pointless, unfulfilling sex, were all ... humanly done. Not criticised, but presented as part of who she was. I appreciate the honesty in that. It didn't feel like one of the themes, but merely another detail of her life: She sung French, smoked a lot, had dark hair, moved to NY, was alcoholic to a degree, etc.
  Her Voice was very well suited to the music too; Edith Piaf started as a street singer, and kept that style for her life. And the sound was appropriately Not academic, and "refined" in the classical sense. It was a pure, and simple voice, as one would hear from a mountain shepherdess, who only knows singing as a thing of beauty, and personal enjoyment. (That comparison is my own, and is only for describing her tone of voice.) The songs were lovely. Although it took 2 or 3 before I really enjoyed them. After that, every one was an unquestionable pleasure to listen to. In the end, this is something I plan on seeing again. I hope to be able to find translations of her songs too, so that I can have a better understanding of it all.
  Also though, remember that I don't speak the language, and many of my opinions here could be based on things I falsely understood. The thing I AM sure about, is this: That my colleague, who danced the inner feelings of Piaf, was most stunning in her first costume, as the innocent, care-free little French girl.