Edith Piaf - Vie en Rose [ASV/Living Era] (CD)

All Music Guide

More so than its predecessor in the Living Era catalogue, "La Vie en Rose" illustrates the gradual ripening of Edith Piaf's artistry with recordings that reference a timeline from her first session (December 1935) to the full plume of her postwar maturity (March 1947). This quintessentially Parisian entertainer was already a bundle of piqued intensities when she made her recording debut; during the 1940s she evolved into a living embodiment of the increasingly theatrical and melodramatic songs that she preferred. There are premonitions here of the almost Artaudlike extremities of her later years; "C'est pour ca" is a disturbing tale of heartbreak and suicide; so is "Un Coup de Grisou", which must have been partially inspired by a certain turn of events described in Emile Zola's novel Germinal. And the ritualistic, solemnly beautiful "Les Trois Cloches" might just be Edith Piaf's masterpiece. Accompanied by the vocal group Les Compagnons de la Chanson, Piaf delivers a moving paean to th...e living and the dead. - arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide Read more Less