My expectations were high last Friday at the Bell Center.
I went there thinking that Michel Sardou would delight his audience, some of whom have been loyal to him for 60 years, by offering them his most famous songs.
But Mr. Sardou obviously wanted to have fun and sang mostly lesser-known songs from his repertoire.
Although he repeated some of his successes, he reduced them to simple excerpts that he summarized in medleys.
For those who paid between $100 and $228 for a ticket, let’s just say they felt like they didn’t get their money’s worth! Especially when parking at the Bell Center costs…$41!
What generosity?
Beyond the single example of Sardou, it is the broader phenomenon of artists depriving their audiences of their greatest successes that disappoints me.
I remember when Vincent Delerm came to Montreal a few years ago. His biggest song, his big success that put him “on the map” was of course Fanny Ardant and me.
And as Delerm continued his songs without even deigning to sing his big hit, I told myself he lacked generosity.
It’s still crazy: I heard more full versions of Sardou’s huge hits while eating at the Bazarette restaurant in the Bell Center than during the show itself! The restaurant’s owners had the strange idea of playing Sardou only for the people who ate there before watching the show.
In the first part of the show, pianist Antoine Decrop integrated Sardou’s songs into his own pieces. The audience at the Bell Center sang En chantant and Love’s Sickness… in the great man’s absence.
When Sardou himself came on stage, he showered us with a cold shower: he told us that he would disappoint us because he wouldn’t sing the song that we really wanted to hear. “Even if the show lasted eight hours, THE song would still be missing.” People come up to him after his show and accuse him of not singing THE song they came to see.
I completely understand what he meant: there was no way he could please EVERY fan of EVERY song. But that’s no reason to gloss over your greatest hits by quickly splicing them together into a medley.
Why did you reduce En chantant, La java de Broadway, Le France to excerpts, but sang Mam’selle Louisiana in its entirety? Why should one prefer songs to which no cat knew the words by heart?
Michel Sardou ended his show with a repeat of Claude François’ Comme d’habit. Why not. But it’s still strange that he would put aside his own greatest successes to highlight someone else’s greatest success.
It’s still incredible that we leave a Sardou show… without humming Sardou.
Missed appointment
Michel Sardou’s show was titled “I Remember a Farewell.” I was sure he would spoil us by showing us off.
Let’s just say that from my evening at the Bell Center I remember a goodbye that I missed.
