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Jul. 14th, 2007 02:46 amSaturday is Bastille Day. You may want to put your recording of Berlioz’s arrangement of the Marseilles on the phonograph/radiogram/hi-fi/stereo/walkman/home-entertainment-system/iPod and turn it up to full volume. Most people are only used to hearing the Marseilles sung in French, but when heard in the original English a much-neglected French-Australian connection emerges. As the Parisian peasants were storming the barricades they were singing:
"We are the boys of old Fitzroy,
We wear the colours maroon and blue"
The French preoccupation with Australia continued in Bizet’s Carmen when the bullfighter strides to the front of the stage and sings:
"We are Geelong, the greatest team of all,
We are Geelong,
We're always on the ball,
We play the game, as it should be played, at home or far away."
Unfortunately when translated back into the pedestrian French that Bizet chose to use, much of the poetry is lost.
-- White Hat Melbourne Newsletter No.226
"We are the boys of old Fitzroy,
We wear the colours maroon and blue"
The French preoccupation with Australia continued in Bizet’s Carmen when the bullfighter strides to the front of the stage and sings:
"We are Geelong, the greatest team of all,
We are Geelong,
We're always on the ball,
We play the game, as it should be played, at home or far away."
Unfortunately when translated back into the pedestrian French that Bizet chose to use, much of the poetry is lost.
-- White Hat Melbourne Newsletter No.226
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