Nice: a cornucopia of music

Nice has become our favorite city in France. Small enough that you can get to know it well, it is large enough to support a huge variety of music and theatre. Our recent stay highlighted the variety of concerts available. The day after we arrived, we took the tram up to the Nice North Forum and saw a world music event – the first half Jo Badou, a singer/percussionist from North Africa playing with a local pianist, and the second a fascinating duo – French cellist Vincent Segal and West African Ballike Sissoko, master of the koral, a harp-like instrument. We later returned to the Forum for a concert by a group of American jazz musicians from the 70’s and 80’s reunited as a group called The Cookers. Days later a short bus ride up to the Chagall Museum took us to a chamber music concert. The concert hall features magnificent stained glass windows, worth the trip by themselves. The three musicians from the Nice Opera orchestra began with a piano-violin-cello trio by Aaron Copeland, relatively short and very “modern,” with the requisite dissonance. This was followed by a magnificent Tchaikovsky trio that was everything chamber music should be. The next weekend you could visit the 14th C Church of St Augustine on Friday evening or Sunday afternoon for baroque liturgical music – the beauty of the music matched only by the magnificence of the surroundings and the discomfort of the seating. The highlight of the stay was a performance of Les Huguenots at the Nice Opera. This rococo gem of a concert hall has wonderful acoustics amid opulent seating, and typically sells out soon after seats go on-line for sale. The orchestra and singers were predictably superb, though the attempt to “modernize” the setting was of mixed success. The shift of the characters from modern to 17th C dress was distracting, as was the use of both swords and firearms as weapons. My only complaint about performances at the Opera is the use of 20+ minute intermissions, leading to very late nights. If not sated, you could drop in on any of dozens of small jazz clubs around the city or listen to the buskers found everywhere people gathered.

Cormac McCarthy at the Wamsutta

Art Tebbetts, New Bedford's troubador, finished his warm-up set telling us we were in for a real treat, and his prediction came true. Cormac McCarthy is a great entertainer in every sense of the word. His rich baritone delivered a variety of songs ranging from the poignant to the angry to the hilarious. He is an accomplished guitar player and added some mouth organ interludes. He writes most of his own material, and each song tells a story. The audience would have stayed as long as he would. Between songs, he kept the audience in stitches with one-liners and stories, some probably rehearsed and others quite spontaneous in response to the audience and environment. (Sample: "I am half Irish and half German. Have the easy charm of a German and the discipline of the Irish. When I wake up in the morning, part of me wants a drink and part wants to invade Poland.") If you get the chance, go and see him live. I’d also urge you to look at the whole Wepeckett Salon Series at the Wamsutta Club as a good way to spend a Saturday evening.