Mélodies Françaises

Musicians and poetry go togeter like a horse and carriage - at least, some musicians like to think so. Now Laurent Manganas goes all Romantic with poems by Verlaine and Rimbaud (among others), and music composed by Debussy, Duparc and Fauré. He called some guest-singers, and the result is called D'1 Siècle á L'Autre - Mélodies Françaises. At the end of the 18th 19th century, French poets like Prud'homme and Gautier loathed the popular lovesongs of that time, and the operas. They wanted something new, something fresh, something esthétique. So, in livingrooms they performed their poems, set to music by the aforementioned composers for a public of aristocrats, the well-to-do and musicians. Manganas, who's part of Dorval, played these melodies (dare I say songs?) with his tenor dad back in the day, and for reasons unclear to me decided to relive them with the help of a guestlist that is a wet dream for every Filles Sourires-fan: Pascale of Dorval, Helena Noguerra, Daphné, Juliette from Diving with Andy, Marie Modiano, Emily Loizeau, Armelle from Holden and three guys (Franck Monnet, Nilda Fernandez and Yann from Stael).
How does it all sound? Very romantic, very tender, very poetic, maybe a little bit too arty. Still, with female voices like that, you really can't go wrong, can you now?

Juliette Paquereau - D'une Prison (Verlaine/Hahn)
Helena Noguerra - Au bord de l'eau (Prud'homme/Fauré)