Dans son salon

A rare evening outing to see the multi-talented Agnès Jaoui in Dans Mon Salon. She's an excellent actress, scriptwriter, and director, but also a singer in her spare time. The concept was to spend an evening in her living room with her friends. It must be a large living room, because there were 14 musicians on stage, including six singers.

We weren't sure exactly what to expect; I only booked because we're fans of her acting and I also knew that she's very musical. Her name was obviously a big draw; the show was sold out and we got there half an hour early in order not to end up at the back. She introduced the show by saying, "We're going to start with a Bach cantata. It's about dying." Having filled us in on the content, she wished us a cheery "Bonne soirée !" And the cantata was followed by some Argentinian rap complete with melodeon, piano, strings, clarinet, flute. Other content included Handel, Purcell, Claude François, Bizet, Queen (Bohemian Rhapsody), a gorgeous Dona Nobis Pacem from one of my favourite choral pieces, Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle ,in which the melodeon stood in for the harmonium, a very avant-garde mamba, a lovely bolero, plus several other Argentinian pieces. She did a great job of introducing the pieces that weren't in French, and the whole atmosphere was relaxed with elements of theatre. In the cantata for example, Jesus came and gave the other singers a hug at appropriate moments and the singers got up and danced during instrumental pieces. And Agnès herself is a pretty good singer. I particularly liked the way she changed her register appropriately for the Argentinian songs.

We certainly got our money's worth: two hours, including three encores during which I snapped a few quick photos. Given the repertoire, I probably enjoyed it more than S did, but we both had a pleasant evening. There's a video teaser.