2003 Fables de La Fontaine. Racontées par Divers. Musique de Benoît Pimont. Made in Germany. Editions Thierry Magnier: France Bleu. €23 from Bon Marché, Paris, Jan., '05.
Here are fifteen fables, also presented in an accompanying book. See my comments there. There are many narrators. The variety is pleasant. Each fable is titled, and there is a pleasant musical interlude in each pause. 25 minutes, 35 seconds.
2005 Fables de La Fontaine. Mise en scène, décors et lumières de Robert Wilson. Un film de Don Kent. Un spectacle de la Comedie-Française. €20 from Amazon.fr, June, '11.
This is a strong dramatic work! I enjoyed it start to finish. There is good variety here, and so we touch on the folly of love, the disdain of art, and the power of flattery, for one of the strongest scenes in the nineteen fables presented is the interaction of fox and crow. The masks are haunting and the movements engaging. La Fontaine is the introducer and narrator, though various animals will also function as narrators in specific scenes. Wilson and La Fontaine save their strongest punches here, I believe, for people and especially for power. Among the strongest indictment fables are "The Obsequies of the Lioness" in which a stag tells some truth to power but then saves his life by flattering the lion king and "The Man and the Serpent," in which the human being ends up choking on his own guilt. Also strong are the finishes to WL, where La Fontaine looks away from the final slaughter, and "The Stag in the Water." The very last fable is "The Companions of Ulysses": Why did these animals prefer now to stay animals? The work is close to the blood and the animal instinct behind La Fontaine's lovely work. Unfortunately my copy has only French; there is an add-on from behind the scenes of the production, with interviews. A real treat! See the booklet included with this dvd and the separate artistic book published a year earlier.
2009 Fables de La Fontaine. Composition, direction musicale et réalization: Pierre-Gérard Verny. For use with the book Fables de La Fontaine sur des airs de jazz. Paris: Flammarion: Père Castor. €19.81 for the book, including the CD, from Amazon.fr, Oct., '11.
Of the twenty-eight fables in the book, twelve are selected for presentation in a jazz mode here. The titles for the music are clever, e.g., "Le blues de la Cigale," "La fugue du Renard," and "La marche de la Tortue." The disc runs some 79 minutes. The final piece puts together two stories of the "smaller," LM and AD, in "Le medley des plus petits." The musical score for "La marche de la Tortue" is at the end of the book.
2006 Fables de La Fontaine. CD. Louis de Funès, Gérard Philipe, François Perier, Fernandel, and others. GoHit, Ltd. €7.
This is a disappointing CD. Although it offers a variety of reciters, each of whom uses a variety of voices supported by orchestral music and sound effects, there are two serious drawbacks. First, the sound quality is not the highest. Secondly, while the jewel case advertises 24 fables, there are 17 tracks, and the last fable and a half are cut off at the end. A good example of the various voices provided by one reciter is WL. Similarly a peculiar voice for the fox in FC includes in his final putdown a good deal of laughing. Louis de Funès recites the first ten fables. There is an accompanying12-page booklet with photos of de Funès and Fernandel, but only some of the fable texts are provided.
1991 Fables de La Fontaine. CD. Fables as songs by Lecocq, Offenbach, Gounod, Caplet, de Manziarly, Van Parys, and Trenet. EMI Classics.
This CD was a revelation to me, through its 22 tracks, of the rich heritage of presentation of La Fontaine's fables as songs. I enjoyed them! Collaborators here are piano and four voices. Lecocq's WL is an excellent example of contrasting wolf and lamb voices. He also has a wonderfully dramatic finish to FC. I found Offenbach's "Shepherd and Sea" eminently understandable. The same goes for his GA. Gounod has several voices, not necessarily in unison, working at once. Caplet and de Manziarly are more "modern," that is, less predictable and "pretty." I enjoyed particularly Caplet's WL with its great closing line and de Manziarly's OF. I found Van Parys more easily comprehensible in his FC, including the inserted "coi, coi, coi." Trenet's GA, among the shortest offerings, seemed to me more playful than others. An auditory treat!
2010 Fables de Jean de La Fontaine Lues par Gérard Philipe et ses Compères. Illustrations by Bruno Vacaro. Hardbound. Vandrezanne: Le Chant du Monde.
This is a fine book with an excellent compact disc. Twenty fables appear, with at least one fine, detailed, full-page colored illustration per fable. The best among these illustrations may be for "The Coach and the Fly" (5), as the mosquito stands sweating after the coach can start downhill; for "The Small Fish and the Angler" (11); for GA (21); for "The Wolves and the Sheep" (32), where wolf and sheep bump fists to clinch their deal; and for OF (34). The illustrations are lively. There is a T of C on the back cover. The actors on the disc come from Le Théâtre Français. The tracks feature only voices, but they are excellent and nicely varied voices. The French keep on presenting their La Fontaine with distinction!
Below I offer a rather random collection of cards from one distinctive series presenting Florian. But first I offer a newer and more unified set.
1880? 6 cards depicting fables of Florian, including a text of very small print in two columns at the top of the back of the card and a simple colored picture on the front. 4 3/8" x 3 1/8". All advertise "Lebel Derly -- Nouveautés." €45 from Albert van den Bosch, Antwerp, June, '23.
These cards are particularly well preserved. It is somewhat rare that I can find a set all from the same printer and retail store.
