France’s café-concert had a tormented history of bans and revivals throughout the nineteenth century. Their fame, though, never waned, and influenced similar establishments in Naples and, to a lesser extent, Rome. A comedian and chanteuse, Émeline Bayart loves all songs of passion, decadence, and ill-fated love. Dissolute men and women pining away – sad stories that Bayart, magically, turn into hilarious pieces of comedy. Accompanied by Manuel Peskine at the piano, the performer maintains original melodies with a twist on vocal texture and registry, occasionally adding some recitato.
