French song & variety
Yvette Guilbert
Yvette Guilbert (1865-1944), a diseuse and singer, was to the music hall what Sarah Bernhardt was to the theatre. Immortalised by Toulouse-Lautrec, tall silhouette and long black gloves, she made her name with the “chanson rosse”, half-tender, half-cruel, carried by a celebrated art of diction. The Riviera was among her stages: she sang several times in Montreux, at the Casino-Kursaal and at the Hôtel National, between 1902 and 1912, to full houses. Retiring to the South of France, she devoted the end of her life to preserving the old repertoire of French song.
Yvette Guilbert, the diseuse of the end of the century
The living poster of the Belle Époque
Born in Paris in 1865, Yvette Guilbert found her style around 1890: the “chanson rosse”, half-tender, half-cruel, carried by a celebrated art of diction. Her sharp voice and stage sense charmed both the regulars of the Chat Noir and the popular audiences of the café-concerts.
The black gloves of Toulouse-Lautrec
In 1893 the painter Toulouse-Lautrec discovered her and never let go: he immortalised her, tall silhouette, red hair and black gloves up to the elbow. That image made her one of the icons of the Belle Époque.
Montreux, between 1902 and 1912
The Riviera was among her stages: she sang several times in Montreux, at the Casino-Kursaal and at the Hôtel National, between 1902 and 1912, to full houses.
The monument of French song
In the second part of her career she became a scholar: exploring libraries and archives, she revived the old repertoire of the troubadours and trouvères, which she sang as far as American universities and Carnegie Hall. Retired to the South of France, she died in Aix-en-Provence in 1944, having become a monument of French song.
Related places
▸Casino de MontreuxCasino / entertainment venueOpen the place →
© Chantal Dervey The building around which the whole musical history of Montreux revolves: burned down in 1971, rebuilt, it houses Queen’s studio and saw the festival born.
