The Famous Spiegel
Garden,
Senate Rose
Garden, Canberra
13th
March 2013
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens.
Amid the
faded rococo splendour of the antique Famous Spiegel Garden, in which it is
reputed that Marlene Dietrich has also performed, a packed house of rapt
Canberrans were treated to an exquisite performance of the art of cabaret, when
French chanteuse, Caroline Nin gave the only Canberra performance of her show
“Hymne a Edith Piaf”.
Caroline Nin
is the real deal. She spends most of her professional life singing at the Paris
Lido, but finds time to tour Australia annually with her stylish cabaret shows,
among which “Hymne an Edith Piaf” is her signature show and her most acclaimed.
It was nominated for a Helpmann Award for the best cabaret show of 2012.
As the name
suggests, this show is not an autobiographical telling of Piaf’s life. Nor does
Nin imitate Piaf’s guttural singing style. However, during the course of the
show we do learn quite a lot about Piaf, and the songs evoke the sound and
passion of Piaf's voice as a result of the way they are written.
Besides being
a superb vocalist, Caroline Nin is also an arresting story-teller, with a sure
sense of the use of movement and stillness. Each of the songs, often given
brilliant jazz-inflected accompaniments by John Thorn on piano and Jonathan Zwartz
on double bass, was preceded by a mesmerising set-up.
Sometimes
Nin, tall, elegant, clad in a tight black dress slit to the thigh, simply
quoted the English lyric in her warm heavily accented voice prior to singing
the song in French. For “L’acccordeoniste” she became “a girl of
joy” – a sex-worker - who dreamed of having her own brothel complete with an
accordionist. For “If You Love Me” she told of how Piaf first sang that song at
a concert on the same night that she received word that her lover had been
killed in a plane crash.
Her
introductions on each occasion were engrossing, often cheeky and playful,
always enlightening, creating the perfect ambiance for the song which followed,
whether it be passionate or tender, regretful or defiant.
Some in the
audience may not have understood the language, in which the song was sung, but
they certainly understood the meaning of every word and all were conscious that
they were participating in a rare, sublime cabaret performance.
