CABARET
The prototype of an authentic cabaret chanteuse.
By Maynor Osborne, London March 5, 2004
Photos:
The American Debbie de Coudreaux and the Parisian Zizi Jeanmaire symbolize the
spirit and essence of a perfectly crafted cabaret star.
The Yanks love music. The Americans love cabaret.
The colorful characters and wizards of the nights love Divas. Would we ever see real cabaret if we hit Broadway or venture in cosmopolitan cities in the United States? Affirmative. America has become the world stage for cabaret. The fascinating aspect of this American art and musical platform resides in the variety of styles of the artists, rather than in the rendered repertoire. Back in the 20s, 30s and 40s, France defined the prototype of a cabaret vedette and the persona of a chanteuse. In the United States, categorizing and indexing chanteuses is a hard task. For, each American star and starlet, the aura of her presence on stage and artistic quality are defined by a personal charisma and powerful artistic performance, rather than by artistic quality. It would be impossible to establish an analogy between traditional French cabaret artistes such as Mistinguet and the popular American counterparts. The French artiste craft her art with personal elegance, a dramatic stage presence and intimate dialogue. The contemporary American cabaret artist rebels against the established dogmatic cabaret of the golden era of Paris and Berlin. A tour d'horizon of what is happening on the American musical scene reveals a divergence and convergence of the character, persona and style of a wide variety of chanteuses. Although, they copy each other in a singular and innovative way, their individual cache remains distinct and seal-stamped.
Photos
for L to R: Widely admired American stars, Amanda McBroom, Anna Bergman, Karen
Akers, Anne Kerry Ford
Cabaret chanteuses in Europe were born as such. They define and adopt a permanent and ever-lasting style from the very first moment they made their debut. In other words, you will not find two similar Edith Piafs or Catherine Sauvages in France. Per contra, an infinitesimal reproductive number of cabaret chanteuses style are copied and re-invented everyday in the United States. Call it artistic re-productivity or creativity, if you wish, but to be politically correct, such creativity is in fact "copiage". However, nowadays, a bouquet of chanteuses in the United States illustrate their talent with an extreme originality which found fertile soil in creativity-conformity. Consequently, for a cabaret chanteuse in America to became popular and widely recognized, she must remain faithful to the cabaret traditional roots, yet, at the same time, project herself as totally different from others; different in her appearance, looks, wardrobe, musical arrangements, repertoire selection, packaging, the locations and spots where she will be performing, the flair and tempo of the music beat and delivery, the choice of her pianist, the lighting and "illuminage" she requires on stage, her willingness to freely incorporating French songs and ballades or absolute tendency to exclusively sing songs written by American composers, etc...Ahead of her, a multitude of factors and decisions are to be considered. One bad decision and she will exist from the backstage door for good.
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