TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Anne de Bretagne will be performed in Nantes on June 29th and 30th.

I've just booked our seats for 29th – we will make a long weekend of it and do a bit of sightseeing as well.

Details here:

http://www.nantes-tourisme.com/31933258/0/fiche___evenements/&RH=

Rough translation - Anne de Bretagne is a musical fresco retracing the epic history of the last Duchess of Brittany, from her birth in 1477 in Nantes to her death at the age of 36 years in 1514 in Blois. The music of this opera is rock, medieval, folk and symphony. It will be performed by fifteen renowned artists and some discoveries.  They include Tri Yann, Angel, Barclay James Harvest, Nilda Fernandez, Cécile Corbel and Fairport Convent.

Anyone else going besides GubGub?

Hmm - "Fairport Convent"....are they all entering a monastery?

I hope to see at least one show...

"Angel"??  Presumably not the US glam rockers of the mid 70's???

Apologies for repeating this from elsewhere but it is more relevant here.

From the website of Radio France,

"A rock opera on the life of Anne of Brittany.  I suggest that you seek out a first extract of the rock opera " Anne de Bretagne" written by the musician Alan Simon, creator of another rock opera, Excalibur. The whole work comprises 31 original titles telling the history of the last duchess of Brittany. The spectacle will be performed in the court of the castle of the dukes in Nantes on 29 and 30 June. Casting has already begun… The harpist finistérienne, Cécile Corbel will be Anne of Brittany, amongst the international cast will be, amongst others, Tri Yann, the voice of Barclay James Harvest, the mythical English group Fairport Convention, Nilda Fernandez, the pianist Didier Squiban, the narrator will be Jean Claude Dreyfus and not forgetting, in many scenes a symphony orchestra, a bagad and choir… This first extract comes from a compilation of the English group Fairport Convention, entirely composed of titles written by Alan Simon, but which is not imported into France for the moment."

Looks like I shall miss you Katy's Mum. My ticket is for 30th. I'm planning to Eurostar/train to Nantes on 29th and head home on 1 July so I will have 1 day to look around the city but my hotel is just around the corner from the castle!  :)

Yes, that's a shame. I'd have preferred 30th but not possible I'm afraid.  I only managed to get the time off because of a residential trip last year which required me to work a weekend.

I was hoping to fly over using RyanAir, but either they aren't flying in June or they're  not on sale yet....but difficult to be sure as their website is ****!

Now mentioned on the FC site along with the Excalibur concert at Kaltenberg.  No comments as yet - now there's a surprise ;)

http://www.fairportconvention.com/general_news.php#news3

Mythical?  Really... And I though they were real...  My eyes and ears must have been deceiving me all this time! :o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qQvbMx0rqc&feature=subscription

This video about the project has just gone up on youtube.

Thanks Ollie.  More accurately one might describe it as a collection of unconnected video snippets of music from the project with no contextualisation whatsoever.  Not sure it does it a load of favours to be frank.

My main conclusion?  Doesn't Les have big hair....?

I guess it is just an early promo for the album. It looks a lot more gallic than the Excalibur albums, perhaps understandably given the subject matter.

I'm surprised to see that there are, as yet, no details of the album on the Amazon France website. It is due out on 17 March.

Think I will give Fame & Glory another spin today.

There is now an official website for this project, if your French is up to it!

http://www.annavreizh.com/

Amongst the information therein is the release date for the album, which is now 19 May.

The website has now been updated. The album is out on the 19th and, it seems, exclusively available from FNAC France (I have just ordered mine). It has 31 tracks of which 4 eature vocals from members of Fairport. It looks as though Simon also plays guitar on other tracks on the album ut it is not clear.

Lots of info about the concerts too. Simon & Chris are the only Fairporters involved but there are a number of other British artists too.

Anyone tell me what trhe difference in prices mean? Neither appears to offer a numbered seat....

i tried buying it from les frogs but i think i'll wait till musikfolk have it as my 40 year old french o level wasnt really helping much ::)

You can convert to the site to English - just click on the Union Jack logo....

never noticed that 8)

pardonnez moi,mais, ou est le union jacque?

Ici, sous le tricoleur!

no, i'm buggered if i can find a union jack or tricolour  :(
is it on the fnac site? ???
sod it i'll wait for musikfolk to get it

Sorry Jim, I misunderstood what you were asking. No the FNAC site does not seem to be translatable.

I remember getting quite confused when I set up my account (I bought my concert tickets through FNAC too) but muddled through it somehow. Buying the CD was easy because my details are already on record.

I bought the online ticket, printed it here & it's on my mobile.....

I wish people knew what their flag is called. ::)

when i was a lad it was always called the union jack and i had never heard the term union flag until fairly recently
what a boring name for the flag "union flag" is, the term "Union Jack" has a bit of swagger about it , so there you drain cleaner drinking Taff ::)

It's one of those things that nobody adheres to, even though it is 'correct'.  I agree with Jim...

The album popped through my letterbox yesterday and what a thing of beauty it is, at least to look at. I have not had time to listen to it yet. The two CDs come bound in a CD sized hardback cover with a lavishly illustrated 50(ish) page book of lyrics and narration. Shame I barely understand a word of it!  ;D :-[

What I do understand, I think, is the valuable news contained within the book that Excalibur 3 will be released in January 2010 and Excalibur 1 & 2 will be re-released at the same time, along with Gaia.

Finally, I think it also says that the forthcoming live performances of both Anne De Bretagne & Excalibur will be filmed for DVD release during 2010.

Good news, something to look forward to.

Yet another example of naval terms entering the everyday language of the British.  I like it!



(in best Borat accent:)
...when does Jack come?

interesting ::) apparently jack was the name given to the navys flag poles and eventualy any flag flown was called a jack hence the union jack or union flag!

I picked up a copy last week while on holiday - excellent packaging as GubGub says. Only listened to Disc 1 so far, and it's pretty damn good.

I notice Ric doesn't appear on any of the (FC) tracks...

My copy cost 18 euros from a branch of the InterMarche supermarket chain - can you imagine Asda stocking it in the UK? No, me neither.  Mind you, the shop was in Vannes, so in Alan Simon territory.

I have listened to all of it now. Good stuff. There is certainly some fret & fiddle burning folk rock on there, though there is a slight tendency towards Eurovision style power ballads in a couple of places. Should be a good gig in a couple of weeks' time. I'm really looking forward to it.

Which day(s) are mermbers attending? And where are you staying?
Maybe we can sort a board meet up?

GubGub,
Ah, now I see the interest in St Pardoux. I would have been interested in this spectacle myself, but on those dates, we already have a visit from me 82 year old Mum. Its an even bigger disappointment, 'cos I have to pick her up from Nantes airport a few days earlier.

Hope you (and anyone else in TA) attending have a great time. I just wish I'd realised earlier what was happening. I would like to have seen this one.

Cheers

I'm going on the Tuesday night. Staying in the centre of Nantes near to both the station and the castle.

Hope you have a great night. It sounds a top evening

We've not been long back from Nantes - the least said the better, I think. :-X  Suffice to say, we are spoilt by the professionalism of Fairport.

Well, hopefully GubGub won't be so reticent  :)

Weren't some members of Fairport there to provide some professionalism to the event?

Yes, but a lot of what went wrong was beyond Fairport's control.  In fact they, and some others to be fair, didn't put a foot wrong.  Chris Leslie's solo at the end was one of the high points for us - one man and his mandolin - subtle and moving.  Understandably, people had started to drift off, given the time (1.15 am) but he managed to pull a few back.

So, what went wrong?

Snippets of the concert can be seen in this news report on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnzf6XIYxw


(Heads back to lurkdom.)

I think we were at different gigs!

I thoroughly enjoyed it - overlong perhaps, and a couple of numbers suffered PA problems - but the setting was superb, the musicianship as a whole was fantastic - but who was the support?......Nilda Fernandez - oh dear, why do the Euros like high-pitched crooners?.....

Someone had forgotten that they needed dusk / darkness in order to shoot the atmospherics for the DVD....and it wasn't going to be dark until 2230.....with a 2030hrs start on the tickets, people naturally started getting restless an hour after that....so they put this Spanish Crooner (singing in French) on! - the only act I wasn't keen on.

So it started at 2215....Les Holroyd glammed up, Simon did a good Edward 1V (was that costume slightly warm, Simon?!!)....Peggy was restricted to the backline poor chap, next to Gerry stage left, with the orchestra stage right forming the bank line with a couple of others on percussion.

In front of them, from stage right to left - Didier Squiban on the piano, various members of Tri Yann, Chris L, James Wood, Simon N (on elecro-acoustic all night), and two others whose names I forget on electric guitar....

The first set went till midnight, the second from 0015 till 0115! A marathon indeed. Managed to get a chat with Peggy, Gerry & James Wood, who seemed to have enjoyed themselves.

The most amazing thing was that someone had taken a chance on the weather & not covered anything at all - if the rain had fallen, mass panic would have ensued trying to get covers over the electrics....."don't mention the 'r' word", said Gerry!

The second set was heavy on the narrative, and I suspect some will get cut for the DVD - but as a whole, I would recxommend it - the way it seriously rocked in places when everyone joined in is not to be missed!

There is news of various re-releases of the Excalibur CDs / DVDs in the A-d-B CD book....which is at home. Will post later.

I've been listening more to the CD set, and I must say it's growing on me - even the couple of slightly "Euro-by-numbers" ballads.  

Have just got home. I was at the Tuesday night performance and it sounds as though there were some differences. I will post a considered report later (hopefully).

Anne De Bretagne – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

And so to the Tuesday night performance. The advertised kick off was 8.30 but when I arrived at the Chateau at 7.15 the audience appeared to be already filtering in. I had planned to get a quick beer first but decided I had better join the queue. This turned out to be a bit of an error of judgement as we were in fact only being marshalled into the moat (mercifully free of water) until the gates opened properly some three quarters of an hour later.

I would echo Chris’s thoughts on the unscheduled, unnecessary and tiresome support act. The locals seemed to love him but not quite as much as he loved himself and his turn was only enlivened by the appearance of Laurent Tixier for the final song. The scheduled start time had come and gone and it was 8.45 before even this “special surprise” was foisted on the audience. God knows what time Anne De Bretagne would begin.

The answer to that one was about 9.45. Well, that’s ok I thought. The album is just over two hours long. I guess they will play it straight through and we will be out of here by midnight. WRONG! They inserted a second interval at about 11.15. I guess they had not sold enough overpriced beer (for which, bizarrely, you had to queue up for tokens, which you then exchanged for your beverage, like bread queues in Soviet Moscow!)

OK, that covers some of the bad. There was much to admire. Nantes Chateau is a spectacular setting for a concert. It was a perfect evening but it took a long time for darkness to fall and for the lighting effects to make full use of the building’s contours. The participating Fairporters were on stage throughout, augmented as Chris has pointed out, by a number of other musicians to form the backing band. Simon though looked a bit out of sorts. I did wonder weather news of Swarb’s decision about the reunion show had reached his ears but it may just have been down to his costume (I’ll explain in a minute) which was the most elaborate and I imagine hot and heavy one on stage. It was 32 degrees at show time and still in the mid 20s when it finished at…. Well, I’ll come to that in a minute too.

The costumes. Hmmm. Based on my viewings of the Excalibur DVD, I had expected this to be a straight run through of the new work. I don’t know whose idea the costumes were or whether the French have a less cynical approach to this sort of thing but for me, in that setting, there was more than a whiff of one of those medieval themed editions of Jeux Sans Frontieres.

The show. I am at a disadvantage because, unlike Excalibur, the majority of this is in French and my command of the language is not sufficient for me to have followed a great deal of the story. What I can tell you is that it was not suitable for vegetarians as a broad streak of ham ran right through the middle in the form of the narrator, whose contributions elongated the piece by at least half an hour. Even the locals seemed to be aware that his performance was over ripe and took to sniggering quietly while he was on stage. Much of the music is splendid (though some, less so) and it was for the most part tightly and dynamically performed. The Fairporters rose to the occasion. Chris and Peggy in particular seemed to be enjoying themselves though Chris’s song, the epilogue on the album, was confusingly transferred to the start of the second half. Simon got to reprise Duchesse Anne as a finale (or was it an early morning alarm call?) The Breton pipe band who marched through the audience were undeniably stirring and spectacular and were a highlight of the night, as was Les Holdroyd’s “Desire”, my favourite song on the album, which closed the first half. Kudos too to Cecile Corbel and Laurent Tixier for pitching their performances perfectly and avoiding the chest beating grandstanding of a couple of their compatriots (“Chanson” is alive and well in gallic rock music). The only real disappointment, or should I say irritation musically was Pat O May, whose approach to playing the guitar seemed to be straight out of the 1970s cock rock handbook. The fact that his soloing was buried so far down in the sound mix only served to make his absurd posturing look even more preposterous.

As the clock rounded midnight and the narrator continued to declaim, I found myself mentally ticking off the songs from the album that had not yet been played and considering the fact that my hotel finished serving breakfast at 9am and I didn’t want to miss it. The finale did however eventually roll around and in the end the entire two hour album had been performed in just a shade over three hours! Nevertheless I was up and cheering with everyone else. There was, ultimately, something inspiring about it. There were definitely problems. The narration fatally slows down and breaks up the performance and the timing was scandalous but I was glad I went and I had fun. It was only  a short walk back to the hotel, which I reached just after 1am.

Roll on Kaltenburg. I’m taking a tent, sleeping bag and a Red Cross survival kit!

GubGub, Thank you for the review.

When will you be in Kaltenberg ? Saturday or Friday ?
We have booked for the Friday show.

Peter

I booked early so I am going to the Saturday show. I am staying in Garmisch on the Friday. If Excalibur goes on as long as this did, I am a bit worried about getting back to my hotel in Munich afterwards. It seems to be quite a long way from the U Bahn station (assuming they are still running).

I checked the timetable for you. The last train of the S-Bahn to Munich is at 01:54. So no worries  {:-)

Thank you.

As this is a straight forward show with no filiming, I suspect a reasonable start time & hence a finish time of well before midnight. I also recollect that it wasn't overlong either, with little or no narration?

Entrance is granted from 19:30 h onwards (Friday) and 16:00 h (Saturday)
Show starts at 20:30 h

It should be finished by about 23:00 h

Some photos of rehearsals ...

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Simon seemed very cheerful when we spoke to him on Sunday afternoon, or rather he spoke to us, having spotted Katy's Dad's t-shirt, so I guess he was okay with his costume.

The ballet was incongruous since it wouldn't have existed at that time - invented by Louis XIV, I believe.

And why did the stewards remove the tops from our water bottles?  Very odd!

....because 'Fairport folkies' might just throw them at the performers on stage?!  :D ;)

I just got an IM asking how come I was onstage in those pix.

Tweren't me, honest. Who is that big bloke with the geetar? (I don't mean Norm [not that I mean Norm is big])

John O'May - no, I don't know him either.....

pah, its just another of Andy's thinly disguised aliases

No, Pat (not John) O May is the other one, to the right, in the bandana. He is the one who appeared to think he was Jimmy Page, circa 71. The big guy was French I believe but I don't currently have his name to hand.

Basile Leroux is the chaps name- i think.

 ;D

I'm flattered they thought I could throw that far!

Sorry for the delay but after much thought, I reckon you deserve a review.  Remember, these are just my opinions and there were plenty in attendance who enjoyed it.

If you've read the Excalibur thread you will know that the reason we didn't go to Germany had a lot to do with  the possibility of it being theatrical but I never suspected that Anne de Bretagne would be the same - there were no clues on the website when I booked.

Still, we enjoyed our trip to Nantes (explored the castle, the cathedral and visited Les Machines d'Ile, as well as experiencing the pavement cafe culture - weather was hot) even though the concert itself was pretty much as GubGub described it!  

We went on the first night and additionally to what GG said, some of the musicians hadn't done their homework - Nilda Fernandez used a prompt sheet disguised as a piece of parchment and Les Holroyd tried to sing his first song again to the second song's music!  Thankfully, Simon stepped forward and rescued him.  Les was okay after that ... if you discount the 'dad dancing'.

There were other things too - long disorganised queues, being herded into the moat, confusions about where to sit once we were in (we mistakenly sat in the VIP area - good view though), ballet dancers, sound and lighting problems, long pauses, silly sword waving, stops and starts as some performers came in at the wrong time.  And then there was the fact that it didn't start until 10.15 pm after having been let in at 8.00 pm.  Interval was at quarter to 12 and finishing time was 1.15 am.

Our apartment was about a mile and a half from the centre of Nantes and at 1.15 am the buses and trams had stopped running so we walked back.  It was quite pleasant as the air was cooler by then.

Poor Simon looked like Henry VIII and indeed the whole production was a mish-mash of time periods.  The costumes probably spanned about 200 years by my reckoning.  The ballet dancers wore modern clothes.  Also, the fabrics were wrong - too shiny, too bright - Nilda Fernadez wore diamante.  He also wore jeans for the first half but must have had his bottom smacked at half time because he was wearing black trousers after the interval.

There was much to like about it (the setting, the weather, Simon's solo, Chris Leslie's solo, Laurent Tixier - he was the one person who managed to pull off his costume - not literally I hasten to add and Cecile Corbel) but also much to dislike about it - I never want to see my heroes dressed like that again!  I don't think I'll be buying the DVD but will carry on listening to the CD.

Looks as though this show is coming to DVD, release date 17 March.....from Cecile Corbel's website....



Also, a further tour in November....indoors at that time of year, I hope!

Mr Simon seems to be getting his schedules very muddled. He has just toured Excalibur so he is releasing a DVD of Anne De Bretagne. Then in November he is releasing Excalibur 3 so he is touring Anne De Bretagne. You might have thought he could co-ordinate this better!  ;D

Anyone on the list (apart from Simon, that is) going to Ploemeur next Friday?

Just noticed on the website that Simon is playing Edward VII. Arf!

'Fraid not but I will be in France in a couple of weeks so am hoping to pick up a copy of the DVD as I was at the original show where it was filmed.To be honest, I wasn't bowled over but as I was there...

Hope it has English subtitles for the narration but somehow I doubt it.  :-\

When in the area I always visit Keltia Musique, in Quimper, but they haven't got the DVD listed. However, FNAC have (double DVD) for the princely sum of 20 Euros. http://video.fnac.com/a2824703/Anne-de-Bretagne-DVD-Zone-2

I shall be relying on the not inconsiderable language skills of Mrs Q for a translation. Just hope it's not in Breton.  :)

So what is the best deal for buying the Anne De Bretagne CD &/or DVD for us Brits? Amazon has the double-CD listed, but it's nearly £30! I've just been severely burned on the R< 'Shoot Out The Lights' double CD from Rhino (with considerable help from HM Customs) & I'm not looking to pay premium prices again anytime soon.

And,,, did Excalibur III ever come out? I've yet to see it.

The French FNAC site is definitely the best option for both That is where I got both my CD and ticket for the show.

Excalibur 3 is delayed to January according to Alan Simon's website.

As discussed previously on (I think) the Dead thread, customs duties only apply to items priced over £18 and from sources outside the EU. You don't pay VAT as it's already included in the purchase price at the local rate. The only thing that might be a pain is the international postage

i got mine from amazon france, worked out ok as i remember
no subtitles for those of you who didnt get grade 4 french o level though ;D

They no longer seem to stock it.

it was some time ago

This may be the best bet.

http://www.simonalan.com/e-shop/index.html

I ended up getting the 2CD version of the live concert, plus the extra CD of 'Les Plus Grands Themes D'Anne De Bretagne' by Didier Squiban long before I picked up the double studio CD.

Ripping the live one to mp3, I found halfway through that they had Didier Squiban listed as Dider throughout, I'd misread it automatically as Didier, due to the familiarity of the name. Having spotted my mistake, I changed it to Dider.

Then I get the studio version & find he's Didier on that one. Googling seems to find as many listings for Dider as Didier, but I'm assuming the live release got it wrong & will now go & change it back again!