Devizes Festival: Piaf - The Songs, Corn Exchange (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Devizes Festival: Piaf - The Songs, Corn Exchange

7:49am Friday 29th June 2012 in Theatre & Arts

On Wednesday evening, a packed house at the Corn Exchange’s Merchant's Suite was treated to a virtuoso performance of Piaf Songs by Eve Loiseau, ably accompanied by an accordionist (Edward Jay) and a violinist (Fiona Barrow) who, quite simply, played their socks off.

Eve has performed to appreciative audiences in England, France and the USA for some ten years and one can well see why.

A diminutive figure in black, she nevertheless resisted the temptation to simply imitate Piaf and gave us her own interpretations of both classic and less well-known songs, all set in the context of Piaf’s complicated and tragic life.

It was a nice touch that she chose to sing some of the latter in English, so that the poignancy of the words could be fully appreciated by those whose French might not have been quite up to scratch.

The choice of venue was perfect. Laid-out in café style, with dim lighting, it created an intimate atmosphere which would not have been achievable in a more traditional concert-hall-style venue.

In so doing, it underlined the quality of Eve Loiseau’s performance: relatively few can entertain so well without the safety net of distance between themselves and the audience. Her performance was nothing short of “magnifique”.

Gill Coe