A few weeks ago I went with Gillian, Lina, Cecilia and Venetia to see Piaff!, a live musical production based on the life of Edith Piaff. One of our other friends had seen it a few weeks before and raved about it, but when we tried to get tickets they were sold out. Fortunately, they extended the run and we were able to see it.

It was in a lovely old theatre called the Liceu, a historical venue on Plaza Congreso, which is surrounded by other lovely historical buildings, and just being there was a pleasure.

The characters are all kind of rough and ready street people, so there was a lot of slang and colloquial language, which meant, I have to admit, that I couldn’t follow a lot of it. Also, we all felt that it could have done with less talking and more singing. Having said that, it was a good show, and the woman who played Piaff, Elena Roger, was a tour de force! Like Piaff herself, she is about 5’0″ with a huge voice. She interpreted the songs in a way I’m sure Piaff would have loved, and her closing rendition of Non, Je ne Regrette Rien brought the house down. It stayed in my head for several days!