Madame Claude

The life of Madame Claude, the brilliant and complicated and utterly amoral woman behind the most glamorous and successful escort service in the world.

Madame Claude, by renowned social historian William Stadiem, is a magnificent audiobook about the brilliant, complicated, and utterly amoral woman behind the most glamorous and successful escort service in the world.

Évoquer Madame Claude, c’est réveiller un imaginaire peuplé de fantasmes. À la tête de son immense réseau de prostitution de luxe, elle a su entretenir le mystère, donner à son activité les atours de la volupté et de la moralité. Mais, en construisant sa propre légende, Madame Claude a brouillé les pistes, convoqué les faux-semblants et les vrais mensonges, au point de gommer la réalité plus sombre de sa vie.

The works on this CD stem from the early and from the late period of Debussys creative life, and are for these reasons not typical Debussy, in the sense that they eschew the impressionistic features so often associated with the composer. The piano trio is a sumptuously romantic work, with echoes of Schumann and Franck, whereas the cello sonata and violin sonata are part of the 6 sonata project which Debussy started in 1915, but didnt complete because of his untimely death in 1918 (only 3 sonatas were composed). The music is transparent, with neoclassical hints, and sometimes with Stravinskian bite and humour. The musicians on this CD, Federico Guglielmo, Luigi Puxeddu and Jolanda Violante have won their spurs mainly in Early Music; therefore their view on these works is fresh and open, with infectious esprit and zest. As bonus a series of short and much loved pieces in arrangements: Reverie, Arabesque, Minstrels, La fille aux cheveux de lin, and two early original miniatures for cello and piano.

In 1956, Duke Ellington's show A Drum Is a Woman was broadcast on television. Although utilizing the Ellington orchestra, the emphasis was on a somewhat abstract and bizarre story line involving characters named Madame Zajj and Carribee Joe. Zajj, who is born as Joe's drum, travels the world and becomes famous but still dreams of Carribee Joe, who preferred to remain in the jungle. Forty years after the Ellington telecast, French bandleader Claude Bolling revived the story for a show and this recording. Jeffery Smith is the narrator (at times sounding a bit like Duke Ellington), and he shares the vocals with Laika and Francine Romain while joined by the Claude Bolling Orchestra. The revival performance is well done, but the original story is so odd that the results are just a historical curiosity. ~ AllMusic Review by Scott Yanow