Trevor Leighton
‘My neighbour’, ‘the person behind’, ‘a Frenchman’… One in all these was ‘the little outdated woman’. This was Dodo, and she or he adored Dame Felicity Lott, whom I lately noticed in recital on the Théâtre de l’Athénée Louis-Jouvet. “Quelle classe!” she would exclaim. Which is true.
We noticed Lott collectively because the Marschallin and the Countess in Capriccio, however our happiest shared reminiscences of all have been in all probability of her Belle Hélène and Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein, in Laurent Pelly’s productions, excessive factors within the Châtelet’s operatic heyday. Memorable evenings these have been, among the many many memorable instances spent with Dodo, together with a marvellous week in Istanbul (“Une très belle ville. Des toilettes propres partout!”) whereas she was bravely going through down her illness, which I discussed in my garbled account of the Paris Opera’s terrible Entführung in 2014. She had been recognized with most cancers simply earlier than she retired, and was lastly defeated by it six months after that Istanbul jaunt.
I don’t know Lott personally. The closest I ever received to her was when ‘my neighbour,’ seeing she was in the identical restaurant as us after Der Rosenkavalier, couldn’t resist stopping to thank her as we left. However she’s a singer who creates such a rapport together with her audiences that this recital felt a bit like assembly an expensive outdated pal after a protracted absence, suspecting this is able to be the final time… And because it coincided with the tenth anniversary of Dodo’s loss of life, understanding how a lot she’d have loved it meant she was on my thoughts all of the whereas. Within the circumstances, even I, usually soulless and stony-hearted, was affected by all this emotional cost.
As you possibly can see above, Lott and her pianist and fellow vocalist (e.g. in Coward) Jason Carr put collectively an eclectic programme, however a delicate and complicated one, interweaving nods to numerous factors in Lott’s profession in France with wry, autumnal fin-de-carrière allusions (i.e. none of is getting any youthful) and contrasting comedian numbers. Lott launched the units and defined the alternatives herself, in French, divulging how a lot thought had gone into the intelligent enchaînement whereas making a relaxed, acquainted environment.
As my neighbour (sure, he’s nonetheless with us) mentioned afterwards, Felicity Lott’s voice, in her late 70s, ‘is what it’s.’ The years have diminished it, in fact. However Lott’s professionalism and approach, her complete mastery of her instrument, of its capacities, of the virtues that may, actually, be manufactured from sure requirements, are unimpaired. She’s as attentive as ever to the textual content, responsive to each phrase, chiseling each vocal element together with her common intelligence and finesse, and with out falling into mannerism.
Her diction continues to be impeccable; you possibly can take my French neighbor’s phrase for that, too. He understood, he informed me, each phrase. And although her voice is, as I mentioned, diminished, she will nonetheless muster some highly effective notes within the higher center, benefiting from them to carry dynamic distinction and selection. She will be able to nonetheless float ethereal pianissimi, too. And, strikingly, she will nonetheless sing by a phrase, with out taking a breath, the place any singer would possibly legitimately have paused for air.
As everyone knows, her storytelling – tragic, ironic or outright comedian – has at all times been completely judged as nicely: astute, delicate, wistful however by no means maudlin, or understanding and wry, with occasional bursts of exuberance, however by no means cheesy or over-the-top. Beginning chilly (on a cold night) with Auric‘s difficult Printemps was maybe a mistake, however Lott defined that she selected it as a result of she’d sung it on precisely the identical spot forty (she rolled her eyes) years earlier than. As soon as her voice was correctly warmed up, the remainder of the 90-minute programme, carried out with no break, was a largely low-key, poignant but dazzling show of her artwork.
On the humorous facet, the night’s spotlight was in all probability Rodgers and Hart‘s “To maintain my love alive,” a depraved track about disposing of successive husbands in quite a lot of methods. Lott delved into her repertoire of expressions and gestures, acquainted from her Offenbach days, to behave it out with good comedian timing and impact.
On the extra crepuscular, valedictory facet, on the programme’s core have been definitely Poulenc’s “La Dame de Monte Carlo”and, to finish, “Les chemins de l’amour.” I have to admit, I used to be shocked to see “La Dame de Monte Carlo” on the programme in any respect, seeing it as a doubtlessly over-ambitious alternative for a singer approaching (although removed from trying) 80. However then I believed, Dame Felicity is aware of what she’s doing. And naturally she did. It was a outstanding efficiency.
With solely 550 seats, the Athénée is a little bit belle-époque jewel-box of an area, and I used to be on the fourth row. So final Monday night supplied a shifting second of intimacy with an important artist, and a welcome alternative to pay tribute to somebody who’s given us a lot pleasure over time.
Dodo would have cherished it.
