Cole Porter: an American in Paris

For the end of year celebrations, the Châtelet presents a new production dedicated to Cole Porter.

The show with strong musical accents - and very high standard - traces the tumultuous life of the American composer and lyricist.

To discover

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Read also Theater: the intriguing Mr. Cole Porter

A time in the Foreign Legion, then married to a rich American while multiplying the adventures with many lovers, Cole Porter confessed an immense passion, music. After the failure of his opera-comedy

on Broadway, he came to France after the First World War. In the Paris of the Roaring Twenties where artists were exulting, finally freed from his military obligations, Cole Porter perfected his musical studies at the Schola Cantorum, in the class of Vincent d'Indy. He will receive a surprising commission from the Swedish Ballets and will create

where Gershwin will perform his symphony

.

This is all that we find in this two-hour performance, very well sung, with, on stage, the excellent orchestra Les Frivolités Parisiennes. The costumes are sumptuous. The alliance of simple and stylized decorations with the play of the singers extremely worked makes it possible to pass smoothly from the intimate scenes to the very comical ones.

Riding high in Paris did not prevent Cole Porter from composing music for films, musicals and hits of the song. He left unforgettable standards - such

. After his years as a playboy on the banks of the Seine, he will become one of the pillars of Broadway. But it is his Parisian life that this show tells, or rather this invigorating plunge into the Paris of the Roaring Twenties.