name	God
title orig	Dieu
author	Victor Hugo
country	France
language	French
publisher	J. Hetzel
pub date	1891
media type	Print
congress	}}

''Dieu'' ("God", 1891) is a long religious epic by Victor Hugo, parts of which were written between 1855 and 1862. It was left unfinished, and published after his death.

When it was rejected by his publisher in 1857, Hugo tried to integrate it into ''Petites Epopées'' (later ''La Légende des siècles''), eventually announcing that it would form a companion work, along with ''La Fin de Satan''. He had stopped work entirely by 1862, and while the result is fairly coherent, it is less complete than either of the other works, lacking even opening lines.

Argument

The first part is entitled ''Ascension dans les Ténèbres'' ("Ascent into the Shadows") or ''Le Seuil du gouffre'' ("The Threshold of the Abyss"). The poet encounters a being which identifies itself as the Human Spirit: an embodiment of mediocrity, middlingness, of humanity ''en masse''. After the spirit questions him on his motives for coming to this place, the narrator calls out into the void, and soon believes he can make out a multitude of indistinct faces blocking out the depths, from which he hears mysterious voices, possibly demonic, which provide worldly, agnostic, "sensible" advice at great length, and advise the human poet not to bother with ultimate questions ("''L'absolu vous ignore. Ignorez-le.''") When he reacts with indignation and despair, they respond with inscrutable laughter.

The second part, ''Dieu'' or ''L’Océan d’en haut'' ("The Ocean from Above"), depicts various religious and anti-religious points of view as beasts and animals, each emerging from the shadows to state its case.

Atheism: the Bat

Scepticism: the Owl

Manichaeism: the Crow

Paganism: the Vulture

Mosaism: the Eagle

Christianity: the Gryphon

Rationalism: the Angel

"What Still Has No Name": the Light

The third part, ''Le Jour'' ("Day"), is mostly unwritten and very brief, and concludes the work with the poet accepting an offer of enlightenment — which entails instant death.

Development

A first draft, ''Solitudines Cæli'', consisting of part of ''L’Océan d’en haut'', was read to family and friends in early May 1855, the intention being to include it in ''Les Contemplations''. According to the diary of Adèle Hugo, Vacquerie discouraged this idea, and when ''Les Contemplations'' was published it advertised ''Dieu'' as a separate work to come. On 7 June 1856, Hugo wrote to Enfantin that he had almost finished it, but would wait a while before publishing, on the grounds that it was too soon after his previous work. "I should like, God granting me the strength, to transport the rabble to the tops of certain peaks; not that I deceive myself as to whether the air is breathable for them. I want to give them a rest before imposing a new ascension." On 2 July, he was again dissuaded, and was asked by friends for some sort of prose work. Over the next few years he occasionally pondered the appropriate time for the publication of ''Dieu''; around 1868-9 he made serious efforts to arrange the matter, but in August 1870, before returning to France, he entrusted the manuscript to a bank in Guernsey, and it was not retrieved until 1875. From that point onwards it was hardly referred to. The reasons for this abandonment are unclear, as he never changed his mind as to its merits, and the subject matter was no more controversial than that of other works.

References

Category:Poetry by Victor Hugo Category:1891 poems

fr:Dieu (Hugo)

Name	Claude Dubois
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Claude André Dubois
Born	April 24, 1947Montreal, Canada
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, banjo
Occupation	Singer-songwriter
Notable instruments	}}

Claude André Dubois (born 24 April 1947 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian singer-songwriter.

Dubois was an early star of the francophone musical ''Starmania''. He was a vocalist in the Canadian famine relief song "Tears Are Not Enough" and was nominated Most Promising Male Vocalist at the Juno Awards of 1985.

More recently, Dubois made headlines after accusing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of "racism" and "insulting Quebecers" after chopping all of the Quebec artists from the televised version of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame gala in Toronto.

References

External links

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian musical theatre actors Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Musicians from Montreal Category:French Quebecers

fr:Claude Dubois

name	Édith Piaf
background	solo_singer
birth name	Édith Giovanna Gassion
alias	La Môme Piaf(''The Little Sparrow'')
born	December 19, 1915Belleville, Paris, France
died	Plascassier, France
instrument	Voice
genre	CabaretTorch songsChanson
occupation	Singer, songwriter, actress
years active	1935–1963
label	Pathé Records, Pathé-Marconi
associated acts	}}

Édith Piaf (, ; ; 1915–1963), born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads. Among her songs are "La Vie en rose" (1946), "Non, je ne regrette rien" (1960), "Hymne à l'amour" (1949), "Milord" (1959), "La Foule" (1957), "l'Accordéoniste" (1955), and "Padam... Padam..." (1951).

Early life

Despite numerous biographies, much of Piaf's life is shrouded in mystery. She was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, Paris. Legend has it that she was born on the pavement of ''Rue de Belleville 72'', but her birth certificate cites the Hôpital Tenon, the hospital for the 20th arrondissement of which Belleville is part.

She was named Edith after the World War I British nurse Edith Cavell, who was executed for helping French soldiers escape from German captivity. Piaf—an ''argot'' colloquialism for "sparrow"—was a nickname she would receive 20 years later.

Her mother, Annetta Giovanna Maillard (1895–1945), was of French descent on her father's side and of Italian and Berber origin on her mother's. She was a native of Livorno, a port city on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. She worked as a café singer under the name ''Line Marsa''.

Louis-Alphonse Gassion (1881–1944), Édith's father, was a Norman street acrobat with a past in the theatre. Édith's parents soon abandoned her, and she lived for a short time with her maternal grandmother, Emma (Aïcha) Saïd ben Mohammed (1876–1930). Before he enlisted with the French Army in 1916 to fight in World War I, her father took her to his mother, who ran a brothel in Normandy. There, prostitutes helped look after Piaf.

From the age of three to seven, Piaf was allegedly blind as a result of keratitis. According to one of her biographies, she recovered her sight after her grandmother's prostitutes pooled money to send her on a pilgrimage honoring ''Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux'', which the author claims resulted in a miraculous healing.

In 1929, at 14, she joined her father in his acrobatic street performances all over France, where she first sang in public.

She took a room at Grand Hôtel de Clermont (18 rue Veron, Paris 18ème) and separated from him, going her own way as a street singer in Pigalle, Ménilmontant, and the Paris suburbs (cf. the song "''Elle fréquentait la Rue Pigalle''").

She joined her friend Simone Berteaut ("Mômone") in this endeavor, and the two became lifelong partners in mischief. She was about 16 when she fell in love with Louis Dupont, a delivery boy.

At 17, she had her only child, a girl named Marcelle, who died of meningitis at age two. Like her mother, Piaf found it difficult to care for a child while living a life of the streets, so she often left Marcelle behind while she was away, and Dupont raised her until her death.

Singing career

In 1935 Piaf was discovered in the Pigalle area of Paris by nightclub owner Louis Leplée, whose club ''Le Gerny'' off the Champs-Élysées was frequented by the upper and lower classes alike. He persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness, which, combined with her height of only , inspired him to give her the nickname that would stay with her for the rest of her life and serve as her stage name, ''La Môme Piaf'' (''Parigot'' translatable as "The Waif Sparrow", "The Little Sparrow", or "Kid Sparrow"). Leplée taught her the basics of stage presence and told her to wear a black dress, later to become her trademark apparel. Leplée ran an intense publicity campaign leading up to her opening night, attracting the presence of many celebrities, including actor Maurice Chevalier. Her nightclub gigs led to her first two records produced that same year, with one of them penned by Marguerite Monnot, a collaborator throughout Piaf's life.

On 6 April 1936, Leplée was murdered and Piaf was questioned and accused as an accessory, but was acquitted. Leplée had been killed by mobsters with previous ties to Piaf. A barrage of negative media attention now threatened her career. To rehabilitate her image, she recruited Raymond Asso, with whom she would become romantically involved. He changed her stage name to "Édith Piaf", barred undesirable acquaintances from seeing her, and commissioned Monnot to write songs that reflected or alluded to Piaf's previous life on the streets.

In 1940, Édith co-starred in Jean Cocteau's successful one-act play ''Le Bel Indifférent''. She began forming friendships with prominent people, including Chevalier and poet Jacques Borgeat. She wrote the lyrics of many of her songs and collaborated with composers on the tunes. In 1944, she discovered Yves Montand in Paris, made him part of her act, and became his mentor and lover. Within a year, he became one of the most famous singers in France, and she broke off their relationship when he had become almost as popular as she was.

During this time she was in great demand and very successful in Paris as France's most popular entertainer. After the war, she became known internationally, touring Europe, the United States, and South America. In Paris, she gave Atahualpa Yupanqui (Héctor Roberto Chavero)—the most important Argentine musician of folklore—the opportunity to share the scene, making his debut in July 1950. She helped launch the career of Charles Aznavour in the early 1950s, taking him on tour with her in France and the United States and recording some of his songs. At first she met with little success with U.S. audiences, who regarded her as downcast. After a glowing review by a prominent New York critic, however, her popularity grew, to the point where she eventually appeared on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' eight times and at Carnegie Hall twice (1956 and 1957).

Édith Piaf's signature song "La vie en rose" was written in 1945 and was voted a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.

Bruno Coquatrix's famous Paris Olympia music hall is where Piaf achieved lasting fame, giving several series of concerts at the hall, the most famous venue in Paris, between January 1955 and October 1962. Excerpts from five of these concerts (1955, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1962) were issued on record and CD and have never been out of print. The 1961 concerts were promised by Piaf in an effort to save the venue from bankruptcy and where she debuted her song "Non, je ne regrette rien". In April 1963, Piaf recorded her last song, "L'homme de Berlin".

World War II

During World War II, she was a frequent performer at German Forces social gatherings in occupied France, and many considered her a traitor; following the war she stated that she had been working for the French Resistance. While there is no evidence of this, it does seem to be true that she was instrumental in helping a number of individuals (including at least one Jew) escape Nazi persecution. Throughout it all, she remained a national and international favorite. Piaf dated a Jewish pianist during this time and co-wrote a subtle protest song with Monnot. According to one story, singing for high-ranking Germans at the ''One Two Two Club'' earned Piaf the right to pose for photographs with French prisoners of war, to boost their morale. The Frenchmen were supposedly able to cut out their photos and use them as forged passport photos.

Personal life

The love of Piaf's life, the married boxer Marcel Cerdan, died in a plane crash in October 1949, while flying from Paris to New York City to meet her. Cerdan's Air France flight, flown on a Lockheed Constellation, went down in the Azores, killing everyone on board, including noted violinist Ginette Neveu. Piaf and Cerdan's affair made international headlines, as Cerdan was the former middleweight champion of the world and a legend in France in his own right.

In 1951, Piaf was seriously injured in a car crash along with Charles Aznavour, breaking her arm and two ribs, and thereafter had serious difficulties arising from morphine and alcohol addictions. Two more near fatal car crashes exacerbated the situation. Jacques Pills, a singer, took her into rehabilitation on three different occasions to no avail.

Piaf married Jacques Pills in 1952 (her matron of honour was Marlene Dietrich) and divorced him in 1956. In 1962, she wed Théo Sarapo (Theophanis Lamboukas), a Greek hairdresser-turned-singer and actor who was 20 years her junior. The couple sang together in some of her last engagements.

Death and legacy

Piaf died of liver cancer aged 47 at Plascassier, on the French Riviera, on 11 October 1963 (according to some, 10 October in Paris). She had been drifting in and out of consciousness for several months. It is said that Sarapo drove her body back to Paris secretly so that fans would think she had died in her hometown. She is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris next to her daughter Marcelle, where her grave is among the most visited.

Although she was denied a funeral mass by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris because of her lifestyle, her funeral procession drew tens of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the cemetery was attended by more than 100,000 fans. Charles Aznavour recalled that Piaf's funeral procession was the only time since the end of World War II that he saw Parisian traffic come to a complete stop.

In Paris, a two-room museum is dedicated to her, the Musée Édith Piaf (5 rue Crespin du Gast).

In popular culture

Films

The film ''Piaf'' (1974) depicted her early years, and starred Brigitte Ariel, with early Piaf songs performed by Betty Mars.

Piaf's relationship with Cerdan was also depicted in film by Claude Lelouch in the movie ''Édith et Marcel'' (1983), with Marcel Cerdan Jr. in the role of his father and Évelyne Bouix portraying Piaf.

''Piaf...Her Story...Her Songs'' (2003) is a film starring Raquel Bitton in her performance tribute to Edith Piaf. Bitton performs Piaf's most famous songs and describes her tempestuous life. Woven into the filmed concert is a luncheon in Paris, hosted by Bitton, in which some of Piaf's composers, friends, lovers, and family share their memories. These include Michel Rivgauche and Francis Lai, two of Piaf's composers, as well as Marcel Cerdan, Jr., son of the boxing champion who was her greatest love.

''La Vie en rose'' (2007), a film about her life directed by Olivier Dahan, debuted at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2007. Titled ''La Môme'' in France, the film stars Marion Cotillard in the role that won her the Academy Award for Best Actress (Oscar), as Piaf. Dahan's film follows Piaf's life from early childhood to her death in 1963. David Bret's 1988 biography, ''Piaf, A Passionate Life'', was re-released by JR Books to coincide with the film's release.

Plays

''Piaf'' (1978), by Pam Gems

''Piaf Piaf'' (1988), by Juha Siltanen and Jorma Uotinen

''The Sparrow and the Birdman'' By Raquel Bitton (1999)

''Edith and Simone'' (2000 and 2006), by Ronny Verheyen

''Pure Piaf'' (2006), by Alex Ryer

''No Regrets'' (2009), by Scotti Sween (TheatreVision/Off-Off-Broadway)

''Piaf de Musical'' (1999 and 2009), a Dutch musical

''Edith, het legendarische verhaal van Edith Piaf''(2009), by Yves Caspar

Other

The minor planet of 3772 Piaf, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina in 1982, is named after her.

Songs

;1925

;1933

;1934

;1935

;1936 (from the movie ''La Garçonne'')

;1937

;1938

;1939

;1940

;1941 (from the movie ''Montmartre-sur-Seine'')

;1942 (from the movie ''Montmartre-sur-Seine'')

;1943 (from the movie ''Montmartre-sur-Seine'')

;1944

;1945

;1946 (with Les Compagnons de la chanson) (with Les Compagnons de la Chanson) (with Les Compagnons de la Chanson) (with Les Compagnons de la Chanson)

;1947 (from the movie ''Neuf Garçons, Un Cœur'') (from the movie ''Neuf Garçons, Un Cœur'')

;1948

;1949 (from the movie ''L'Homme aux Mains d'Argile'')

;1950

Hymn to Love

Autumn Leaves

The Three Bells

Simply a Waltz

(English version)

;1951 (with Eddie Constantine) (with Eddie Constantine) (with M. Jiteau)

;1952 (from the movie ''Boum sur Paris'') (with Jacques Pills) (from the movie ''Boum sur Paris'')

;1953 (with Jacques Pills) (from the movie ''Boum sur Paris'')

;1954 (from the movie ''Si Versailles M'Était Conté'') (from the movie ''French Cancan'')

;1955

;1956

Heaven Have Mercy

One Little Man

'Cause I Love You

(English)

Don't Cry

I Shouldn't Care

My Lost Melody

;1957

;1958

;1959

;1960

;1961

No Regrets

;1962 (with Théo Sarapo) (with Charles Dumont) (with Mikis Theodorakis/Jacques Plante) (with Théo Sarapo)

;1963 (her last recording)

Filmography

''La garçonne'' (1936), Jean de Limur

''Montmartre-sur-Seine'' (1941), Georges Lacombe

''Étoile sans lumière'' (1946), Marcel Blistène

''Neuf garçons, un cœur'' (1947), Georges Freedland

''Si Versailles m'était conté'' (1954), Sacha Guitry

''French Cancan'' (1954), Jean Renoir

''Música de Siempre'' (1958), sang La vida en rosa, the Spanish version of "La Vie en rose".

''Les Amants de demain'' (1959), Marcel Blistène

Theatre credit

''Le Bel Indifférent'' (1940), Jean Cocteau

Discography

The following titles are compilations of Édith Piaf's songs, and not reissues of the titles released while Édith Piaf was active.

''The Voice of the Sparrow: The Very Best of Édith Piaf'', original release date: June 1991

''Édith Piaf: 30th Anniversaire'', original release date: 5 April 1994

''Édith Piaf: Her Greatest Recordings 1935–1943'', original release date: 15 July 1995

''The Early Years: 1938–1945, Vol. 3'', original release date: 15 October 1996

''Hymn to Love: All Her Greatest Songs in English'', original release date: 4 November 1996

''Gold Collection'', original release date: 9 January 1998

''The Rare Piaf 1950–1962'' (28 April 1998)

''La Vie en rose'', original release date: 26 January 1999

''Montmartre Sur Seine'' (soundtrack import), original release date: 19 September 2000

''Éternelle: The Best Of'' (29 January 2002)

''Love and Passion'' (boxed set), original release date: 8 April 2002

''The Very Best of Édith Piaf'' (import), original release date: 29 October 2002

''75 Chansons'' (Box set/import), original release date: 22 September 2005

''48 Titres Originaux'' (import), (09/01/2006)

''Édith Piaf: L'Intégrale/Complete 20 CD/413 Chansons,'' original release date: 27 February 2007

There are in excess of 80 albums of Édith Piaf's songs available on online music stores.

Édith Piaf on DVD

''Édith Piaf – A Passionate Life'' (24 May 2004)

''Édith Piaf : Eternal Hymn'' (''Éternelle, l'hymne à la môme'', Non-US Format, Pal, Region 2, import)

''Piaf – Her Story, Her Songs'' (June 2006)

''Piaf: La Môme'' (2007)

''La Vie en rose'' (biopic, 2008)

''Édith Piaf – The Perfect Concert'' and ''Piaf The Documentary'' (February 2009)

Books on Édith Piaf

''The Wheel Of Fortune: The Autobiography of Édith Piaf'' by Édith Piaf (originally written in 1958, 5 years before her death), Peter Owen Publishers; ISBN 0720612284

''Édith Piaf'', by Édith Piaf and Simone Berteaut, published January 1982; ISBN 2904106014

memoirs, written by stepsister

''The Piaf Legend'', by David Bret, Robson Books,1988.

''Piaf: A Passionate Life'', by David Bret, Robson Books, 1998, revised JR Books, 2007

"The Sparrow – Edith Piaf," chapter in ''Singers & The Song'' (pp. 23–43), by Gene Lees, Oxford University Press, 1987, insightful critique of Piaf's biography and music.

''Marlene, My Friend'', by David Bret, Robson Books, 1993. Dietrich dedicates a whole chapter to her friendship with Piaf.

''Oh! Père Lachaise'', by Jim Yates, Édition d'Amèlie 2007, ISBN 978-0-9555836-0-5. Piaf and Oscar Wilde meet in a pink tinted Parisian Purgatory.

''No Regrets. The Life of Edith Piaf'', by Carolyn Burke, Alfred A. Knopf 2011, ISBN 978-0-307-26801-3. An in depth and insightful look at Piaf's life.

Édith Piaf in contemporary music and popular media

Barbara Feldon sings Édith Piaf's "La vie en rose" in the 1966 episode of Get Smart entitled "Casablanca".

Édith Piaf is mentioned in the song "Piaf chanterait du rock" by Luc Plamondon, which was most famously recorded by Marie Carmen and Celine Dion.

The song "Edith and the Kingpin" on Joni Mitchell's 1975 album ''The Hissing of Summer Lawns'' was revealed to be about Édith Piaf in an interview with Mitchell published in the February 2008 issue of ''Mojo''.

The Elton John song "Cage the Songbird", from his 1976 ''Blue Moves'' album, is a tribute to Édith Piaf.

Édith Piaf is mentioned in the song "Chocolate Cigarette" by Tom Russell and Sylvia Tyson on Russell's 1991 album ''Hurricane Season''.

In 1996, Ari Folman released the near futuristic comedy ''Saint Clara''. In this film, Édith Piaf is repeatedly mentioned by many of the adults, who remember her seemingly from school, and prove that they are part of the leading culture, as opposed to the immigrants

In the film ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998), Piaf's 1943 songs "C'Était Une Histoire D'Amour" and "Tu Es Partout" are central to providing a common thread of longing for loves and lives left behind in scenes between Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) and Private Ryan (Matt Damon) as well as providing a context for anecdotes from other central characters.

The song La Foule was used in the 2004 film My Summer of Love.

Martha Wainwright sings a collection of 15 songs made famous by Piaf on her album ''Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, A Paris: Martha Wainwright's Piaf Record'', released on 24 November 2009, by MapleMusic Recordings. All songs were recorded at Dixon Place Theatre in New York City during the summer of 2009.

Japanese musician, Utada Hikaru, has covered the song Hymne à l'amour (Ai no Anthem) for her second compilation album Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2 in 2010.

"Non, je ne regrette rien" is featured extensively in the 2010 movie Inception.

In the film ''X-Men: First Class'' (2011), the song La Vie En Rose is used.

See also

Music of France

French popular music

References

External links

Edith Piaf's songs

Genealogy of Edith Piaf, Généalogie magazine, n° 233, pp. 30–36

Category:1915 births Category:1963 deaths Category:Musicians from Paris Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:Cabaret singers Category:Cancer deaths in France Category:Deaths from liver cancer Category:French buskers Category:French female singers Category:French-language singers Category:French people of Italian descent Category:French people of Algerian descent Category:French pop singers Category:French Resistance members Category:Torch singers

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