The performance at the 2010 Tête à Tête Opera Festival can be streamed here (piece starts at 42:07)

Two Cabaret Songs (2010)
mezzo-soprano and alto melodica (3’)

1. Sur les débuts d'Amina Boschetti au Théâtre de la Monnaie à Bruxelles
2. Un Cabaret folâtre sur la route de Bruxelles à Uccle

These songs set two light-hearted satirical texts by the great French writer Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) from a group of poems he called 'Bouffonneries' ('Buffooneries'), first published in Les Épaves ('Scraps'), 1866. In the first, Baudelaire is at the ballet in Brussels and complains about a boorish Belgian who crudely dismisses a ballerina’s debut efforts. In the second he addresses his friend the famous Parisian food critic and journalist Charles Monselet with an ironic aside about a provincial tavern he has spotted on his travels.

Written for the British singer, composer and artistic director Laura Bowler and first performed by her accompanied by myself on melodica as part of the Tête à Tête Opera Festival at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith on 19th August 2010