Edith Piaf: the legendary french cabaret singer

As the famous French cabaret Edith Piaf once said “To sing is to bring to life; impossible if the words are mediocre, however good the music”. Before vacations, on Thursday April 20th, we went to the Allianz Francaise in Miraflores to watch the legendary interpretation of “Edith Piaf”, the story of the French cabaret vocalist herself who became referred as France’s national diva and world widely, an international star. The play highlights the aspects of her personal life throughout the acting and lyrics of her songs, the suffering she passes through and the excitement of becoming a recognizable singer around the entire universe. 

Regarding the design elements, the use of lights were essential to differentiate the changes in time or for the focus upon Piaf’s chanson that reflected her sorrowful life. This is shown by using one of the light properties of contrast. Firstly, a light color palette of pink, red and yellow were chosen to contrast then against a blue and green color palette. Pale rose and yellow gelatins were placed on Fresnels. By turning them on and these illuminating the stage, these tints joined and created the perfect mixture, reassembling exactly an impeccable morning dawn. Then, in order to mark the change in time, blue greenish gelatins were used to reinforce the idea that now, the dawn has ended and the sun has rised and shined. Moreover, dim senital lights were used and directed towards a makeup table that Piaf interacted with, where she ingested the drugs. Additionally, these senital lights were used during the moments of tension, specifically, when she attempted suicide by consuming drugs and an excess of pills. Thus, to emphasize an environment full of tension and sadness since the grin reality of Edith Piaf was appearing, her dependency on drugs and beverages which leaded her to her own destruction, her death.  On the other side, red lights were used to evoke an atmosphere of violence and aggression as demonstrated in the assassination of Piaf’s adoptive father or the scene where Edith had to prostitute herself to cover her poor lifestyle. Contrast effects were made sin the 2^nd or 3^rd bar of lights were on with red gelatin fresnels. As a result, this created silhouettes of the characters. This was a perfect strategy since this immoral scene couldn’t been seen in public.

On the other side, various sound effects were used to produce hostile noises. A sound effect for the gunshot was used, the replica of a shot gun firing was echoed in the stage whether than showing the actual assassination of the adoptive father that gave her a prestigious job opportunity. Despite the murder itself, the fact of actually not showing it caused even more tension and mystery towards the audience since they don’t know who actually killed him or how, they just heard the irritating gun shot that took an innocent to his unexpected death. Also, by resounding the noisy airplane crush, where Marcel, Edith‘s one true love died, it conveyed a sense of destruction and decadence, especially, crushing poor Piaf’s beating heart. Therefore, by the use of sound effects, the directors decided to avoid the actual portrayal of death scenes and place emphasis more on the sounds that cause a deeper connection and sensation of misery to the audience. The sound effects helped the audience feel the moment, presence it and feel the pain the characters themselves felt when losing a beloved one.

                   

Finally, by the use of diverse costumes used by Piaf, her social status was proven to be changing in the years. This is shown when Edith, from a partial time prostitute that sung in streets recollecting money to cover her basic necessities turned into a well-known paid singer that was recognizable internationally by the world. She indeed became in France’s national diva. To transmit to the audience the unstable and poor lifestyle Edith lived before, she used sloppy clothes and untidy hair. Also, none of her clothing actually combined with each other. It seemed like if she used literally, the remainders she found in an abandoned closet. However, to show the drastic and positive change in her life, she changed completely and used black neat suits and skirts. As a result, these fancy clothing now used by a renewed Edith were the portrayal of elegance since all singer must be presentable, sophisticated and fashionable.

In terms of the acting skills, the actress Patricia Barreto who interpreted the legendary cabaret singer Piaf used varied face expressions to explore different aspects and moments in Edith Piaf’s monotonous lifestyle. Firstly, she used passionate face gestures while have intimate moments with her loved one, the boxer Marcel. However, her face passed through several stages of mixed emotions. After Marcel’s tragic ending, his death; Piaf’s career and happy lifestyle dropped to the ruin. Edith begun to feel incomplete, in a constant state of sorrow where she used exaggerated sad, melancholic gestures that included crying and frowning constantly her eyebrows. This created a negative effect upon the audience since they felt empathy for poor Edith Piaf who after overcoming a hard difficult lifestyle, she has went back down to that same level of difficulty that she was in before.

Moreover, the characterization of Edith Piaf was reassembled perfectly. Edith Piaf had suffered from the departure of her mother and the inability of her father of taking care of her when she was little. As a result, the mother’s personality of being a part time prostitute who sung in streets to collect money influenced directly Edith’s behavior. Patricia Barreto portrayed Edith Piaf as an alcoholic singer who was a partial prostitute who picked up men from bars, exactly like her mother. Due to the abandon of her mother, Edith Piaf inherited the exact behavior of her mother. This is shown when in the beginning of the play, the setting is in the street where Edith is a beggar singing for money in the streets. Also, while she encounters men she behave like a total immoral person, or in other words a prostitute to win money due to her unstable standard of living. Furthermore, the characterization is also evidenced when Edith goes to bars and kisses literally with each man she encounters or when her consumption in alcohol beverages increases, increasing her alcoholic dependency which leaded her to a unbalanced an insecure lifestyle. This was because she didn’t had any parental guidance that would help her succeed correctly in life. Finally, most of Edith Piaf’s monologues were chanted since her singing was an autobiographical reflection of her life, the songs she chanted were metaphors of the aspect of her life. As a result, this is shown in the death of the married Marcel Cerdan, she sung a ballad based on the loss and sorrow she felt after the unexpected death of Marcel, her true love. The song was “la vie en rose”.

Finally, the play “Piaf” directed by Pam Gems was a reflection of the personal life of Edith Piaf, the transitions she passed through that leaded her to the road of success, the bumps and down she had during her life and more. This was proved when the play began presenting Edith Piaf in the middle of the busy streets of France where she was street singer that gained money due to her natural talent. She began singing “je ne suis rien” that attracted tourists and locals quickly. From there, a man stood and heard her. As a result he was the one that gave him the job opportunity that would save her from the ruin and shine in the future. Her life continued happily until her loved one died, which altered her completely and led her to the constant stress of concerts and the addictiveness of alcohol beverages and drugs, especially morphine. Finally, due to this dependency and the car accident she had suffered before, an internal hemorrhage as created and she was incapable of singing. In conclusion, Edith Piaf’s life was a mixture of positivity that was governed by the depressing moments she lived through. 

Moreover, an interesting fact of the play was that the prologue, the introduction of Edith Piaf singing “Je ne regrette rien” was repeated three times. The first time was more simple, Piaf was in a normal mood with no preoccupations and singing “Je ne suis rien”. However in the second and third time that were near the ending of the play, Edith trembled to come out to the stage and sing. Inclusive, in one of the attempts she passed out and began crying of the desperation. Thus, meaning that this radical change occurred because of the consumption of drugs and alcohol, the broken heart issues and the solitary life she lived in had finally bumped her, leading her to a severe condition. Lastly, the context of the play was easily identifiable due to the videos placed in the screener, which illustrated the reign of Hitler, in other words the outbreak of World War 2. Also, this was proven when one scene reinforced the victory of France and the defeat of Germany in World War 2. French flags were carried, while drinking, celebrating the victory and chanting the French hymn.