Exploring the Roots Of French Cabaret Music

Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe will sing French cabaret songs at a fundraising event for the Bard College Conservatory of Music and Graduate Vocal Arts Program on Saturday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m. in the Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. Tickets for the live performance start at $25. Virtual livestream tickets are pay what you wish. All ticket sales benefit the Bard Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Scholarship Fund.

Blythe has performed on many of the world’s great stages, such as Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Paris National Opera, San Francisco, Chicago Lyric, and Seattle Opera. Joining her in the performance Nov. 6 will be pianist Kayo Iwama, who has performed at venues including the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, DiMenna Center, Merkin Hall, The Morgan Library, Jordan Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Tanglewood, the Kennedy Center, Tokyo’s Yamaha Hall and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

Blythe and Iwama will be joined by members of the Vocal Arts Program and Conservatory Collaborative Piano Fellowship in a program that explores the beginnings of the world of French cabaret, a musical movement that was born to explore an exotic and bohemian ideal, expressing social and political satire through song.

The evening’s program includes a repertoire of French cabaret songs spanning 1866 through 1968, and includes “Les temps des cerises” (1866) by Jean-Baptiste Clément (1836-1903), “La Vie en rose” (1945) by Louiguy (1916-91), “Le serpents qui danse” (1957) by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), and “Les moulins de mon coeur” (1968) by Michel Legrand (1932-2019) among many others.

To purchase or reserve tickets, go to www.fishercenter.bard.edu, call 845-758-7900 (Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), or email boxoffice@bard.edu.