Léo Ferré

Léo Ferré 24 August 1916 14 July 1993 was a Frenchborn Monégasque poet and composer and a dynamic and controversial live performer whose career in France dominated the years after the Second World War until his death He released some forty albums over this period composing the music and the majority of the lyrics He released many hit singles particularly between 1960 and the midseventies Some of his songs have become classics of the French chanson repertoire including Avec le temps Cest extra Jolie Môme and Paris canaille Son of Joseph Ferré French staff manager at MonteCarlo Casino and Marie Scotto a Monégasque dressmaker of Italian descent from Piedmont he had a sister Lucienne two years older Léo Ferré had an early interest in music At the age of seven he joined the choir of the Monaco Cathedral and discovered polyphony through singing pieces by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria His uncle former violinist and secretary at the Casino used to bring him to performances and rehearsals at the Monte Carlo Opera Ferré listened to such musicians as bass singer Feodor Chaliapin discovered Beethoven under the baton of Arturo Toscanini Coriolanus was deeply moved by the Fifth Symphony But it is the sweet presence of composer Maurice Ravel during LEnfant et les Sortilèges rehearsals that impressed him the most At nine years of age he entered SaintCharles College of Bordighera run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Italy He remained there for eight long years of severe discipline and boredom He wrote about this lonely and caged childhood in an autofiction Benoît Misère 1970 He graduated from high school at Monaco but his father did not let him attend the Conservatory of Music In 1945 while still a farmer and a Jackofalltrades at Radio MonteCarlo Ferré met Edith Piaf who encouraged him to try his luck in Paris In April 1947 Ferré agreed to tour in Martinique which turned out to be disastrous From the end of 1947 Ferré produced and hosted on Paris Inter station several cycles of programs devoted to classical music In Musique Byzantine 195354 he expanded his topics on aesthetics such as tonality necessity exotic melody opera the song of rich people boredom and originality or marshmallow music In 1952 to submit Verdi examination at La Scala in Milan he wrote the libretto and music of an opera called La Vie dartiste same title as the song It transposed his past years experience into a kind of a black comedy but Ferré did not seem to like it much finally abandoning it for other projects He began to sing in larger venues such as lOlympia as the opening act of Josephine Baker in 1954 In 1956 Ferré wrote and composed La Nuit The Night a ballet with sung sections commissioned by choreographer Roland Petit It was a violent flop Source Article Léo Ferré from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30