Charles Aznavour at 90
Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 2:11 am
Just for inspiration. This article is from a German newspaper.
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/konze ... -1.1973010
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Charles Aznavour at his concert in Berlin
( Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa )
On his 90th birthday, Charles Aznavour gave a concert in Berlin , which leaves no doubt as to his age. The great little cabaret singer sings and dances when he was younger by decades. At the end he breaks even with an old habit.
From Kathleen Hildebrand , Berlin
The first to sing , is not Charles Aznavour . When the little white-haired man appears on stage , sings a man's voice from the audience: "Happy Birthday ," and the rest of the 3,500 passengers falls with a . "Happy Birthday , dear Cha- harles " , the last tone of the whole room is : a standing ovation even before the first word of the artist , who celebrates his 90th birthday this evening.
A ball flies onto the stage , a bouquet , it takes until the applause died down . But Charles Aznavour just do it , in the midst of the clapping. Sentimental is here only used the public. Aznavour, the veteran entertainer , his songs for such feelings . It occurs because he wants to sing - not to have to celebrate .
That he begins the evening with " Les Emigrants " is certainly no coincidence . " What do you think , how they came ? / With empty pockets , hands naked." Aznavour parents had fled as Armenian immigrants to Paris. Safe even so he has always been a political artist . He had written in his career to shock the French about 50 songs, he says later . Now, when immigrants from Africa and Syria drowning in the Mediterranean , then Charles Aznavour not naturally begins with a love song , but with this song about deprivation , suffering and danger.
Longing finale with grand gestures
For love songs in the one and a half hours that follow, time enough . And the power of his herausgeschrienen longing finale Aznavour has also worked with 90 years yet , " Paris au mois d' août " he sings with great verve and as a grand gesture : He clenches his fist , his arms open like a gymnast after great freestyle on the horizontal bar lands back on the ground. On the backrest stool , which he sometimes gruff drags himself to the micro , it keeps Charles Aznavour never more than half a song . When gently swinging " Joue contre joue " he dances with himself and with his own hands inclined cheek across the stage to " Les Deux Gitares " he puts down a shuffling flamenco.
That there is one ninetieth year old on stage, you have quickly forgotten. Seventy perhaps, that one would relieve him . Only towards the end he gives a little nakedness , tangled, when he reads his lyrics from a teleprompter . But because all the serenity of the accumulated years comes to Good : "We just pretend as if we were on TV," he says cheerfully. " As someone shouts ' Cut' , people have to clap , and the artist starts again from the beginning. "
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/konze ... -1.1973010
nlarge
Charles Aznavour at his concert in Berlin
( Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa )
On his 90th birthday, Charles Aznavour gave a concert in Berlin , which leaves no doubt as to his age. The great little cabaret singer sings and dances when he was younger by decades. At the end he breaks even with an old habit.
From Kathleen Hildebrand , Berlin
The first to sing , is not Charles Aznavour . When the little white-haired man appears on stage , sings a man's voice from the audience: "Happy Birthday ," and the rest of the 3,500 passengers falls with a . "Happy Birthday , dear Cha- harles " , the last tone of the whole room is : a standing ovation even before the first word of the artist , who celebrates his 90th birthday this evening.
A ball flies onto the stage , a bouquet , it takes until the applause died down . But Charles Aznavour just do it , in the midst of the clapping. Sentimental is here only used the public. Aznavour, the veteran entertainer , his songs for such feelings . It occurs because he wants to sing - not to have to celebrate .
That he begins the evening with " Les Emigrants " is certainly no coincidence . " What do you think , how they came ? / With empty pockets , hands naked." Aznavour parents had fled as Armenian immigrants to Paris. Safe even so he has always been a political artist . He had written in his career to shock the French about 50 songs, he says later . Now, when immigrants from Africa and Syria drowning in the Mediterranean , then Charles Aznavour not naturally begins with a love song , but with this song about deprivation , suffering and danger.
Longing finale with grand gestures
For love songs in the one and a half hours that follow, time enough . And the power of his herausgeschrienen longing finale Aznavour has also worked with 90 years yet , " Paris au mois d' août " he sings with great verve and as a grand gesture : He clenches his fist , his arms open like a gymnast after great freestyle on the horizontal bar lands back on the ground. On the backrest stool , which he sometimes gruff drags himself to the micro , it keeps Charles Aznavour never more than half a song . When gently swinging " Joue contre joue " he dances with himself and with his own hands inclined cheek across the stage to " Les Deux Gitares " he puts down a shuffling flamenco.
That there is one ninetieth year old on stage, you have quickly forgotten. Seventy perhaps, that one would relieve him . Only towards the end he gives a little nakedness , tangled, when he reads his lyrics from a teleprompter . But because all the serenity of the accumulated years comes to Good : "We just pretend as if we were on TV," he says cheerfully. " As someone shouts ' Cut' , people have to clap , and the artist starts again from the beginning. "
