Germaine Montero

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Germaine Montero (born October 22, 1909 in Paris as Germaine Berthe Caroline Heygel , † June 29, 2000 , probably in Saint-Romain-en-Viennois ) was a French singer and actress .

Life

Youth and artistic beginnings

Germaine Montero spent the first years of her life in Montrouge near Paris. After graduating from high school, she traveled to Spain in the late 1920s and took courses at Valladolid University . In Madrid she then met the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca , in whose theater she began her stage career. Under her maiden name, she played her first small film role in 1934 under director Léonce Perret .

Musical success

In 1936 she returned to France as a result of the Spanish Civil War and took on various engagements in Bordeaux and Paris. From then on she took on the stage name Montero and performed at the Théâtre National Populaire with her own music and cabaret programs. At that time, her musical repertoire mainly comprised Spanish folk songs and interpretations of French Montmartre classics. Only later did songs by the poet Pierre Mac Orlan , especially composed for her, follow , on whom she had an inspiring influence as a muse for many years . She became known not least for her reinterpretations of popular chansons by Léo Ferré , Jacques Prévert and Georges Van Parys . Montero first met the Prévert brothers in the late 1940s, from which a lasting friendship and artistic collaboration developed. For the LP Paseando por Espana , which goes back to the collaboration with the late Federico Lorca and was sung in Spanish , she won the Grand Prix di Disque for the first time in 1953 , which she was to receive two more times afterwards. In 1955 she recorded a highly acclaimed LP with compositions by Pierre-Jean de Béranger . About 50 LP releases followed, mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. Her best-known recordings include La Chanson de Margaret , La fille de Londre (both 1952), Je pense a toi (1956) and Chanson de Marianne (1957).

Success as an actress

In 1940 Montero took on a leading role for the first time in the film drama The Sin of Rogelia Sanchez by Italian director Carlo Borghesio . In the further years of the Second World War she played in ensembles in Nice , Cannes and Marseille and was seen again in Paris from 1945, where she appeared in the Athenaeum Theater , among other places . She celebrated great stage successes in Mother Courage and Her Children or in The Righteous by Albert Camus . In 1947, she was under the leadership of Jean Vilar in the founding of the Avignon Festival involved, where they, among others, in the hitherto little-known Shakespeare - play Richard II was seen. In addition, she worked in numerous film productions, particularly successful in France, from the 1950s onwards. These included comedies such as Casimir (1950), the biography Monsieur Ripois (1954 ), which was awarded at the 7th Cannes International Film Festival , or various dramas and music films, which shows their musical and dramatic versatility.

Private

Germaine Montero was married to the filmmaker Jean-Mario Bertschy. She died on June 29, 2000 at the age of 90. Different sources give Saint-Romain-en-Viennois and Orange (both Vaucluse ) as the place of death . She was buried in the cemetery in her hometown of Montrouge.

Films (selection)

  • 1934: Sapho
  • 1940: The Sin of Rogelia Sánchez (Il peccato di Rogelia Sánchez)
  • 1949: Lady Paname
  • 1950: Casimir
  • 1954: Favorite of women (Monsieur Ripois)
  • 1956: The Great Seducer (Don Juan)
  • 1956: Thirteen at one table (Treize à table)
  • 1958: The rats of Paris (Les jeux dangereux)
  • 1962: The Merry Widow
  • 1962: The iron mask (Le masque en fer)
  • 1963: As silent as the night (Mélodie en sous-sol)
  • 1971: The Song of the Balalaika (L'homme qui vient de la nuit)
  • 1973: A season in the vie d'Emmanuel
  • 1978: A man seeks a woman (Robert et Robert)
  • 1983: El Sur - The South (El Sur)
  • 1984: stress

Soundtracks

Music albums (selection)

  • Paseando por Espana ( Le Chant du Monde , 1952)
  • Germaine Montero chante Pierre Mac Orlan (Le Chant du Monde, 1952)
  • Germaine Montero chante Prévert (Le Chant du Monde, 1952)
  • Chansons de Jacques Prévert ( Decca , 1953)
  • Germaine Montero chante Aristide Bruant (Le Chant du Monde, 1953)
  • Mère Courage (Le Chant du Monde, 1953)
  • Germaine Montero, 14 chansons populaires d'Espagne ( Pathé Records , 1954)
  • Poèmes et chansons de Federico Garcia Lorca par Germaine Montero (Pathé Records, 1955)
  • Germaine Montero, Refrains de Paris (Pathé Records, 1955)
  • Germaine Montero chante Léo Ferré n ° 2 (Pathé Records, 1956)
  • Germaine Montero chante Louis Ducreux (Pathé Records, 1957)
  • Germaine Montero, Par vents et marées (Pathé Records, 1957)
  • Germaine Montero, Je voulais des soleils (Pathé Records, 1957)
  • Germaine Montero, jazz band (Pathé Records, 1957)
  • La ralentie, poème d'Henri Michaux dit par Germaine Montero (Disque BAM, 1957)
  • Germaine Montero chante Pierre Mac Orlan et Georges Van Parys (Pathé Records, 1958)
  • Macadam (Vega, 1959)
  • Germaine Montero, Chansons nouvelles de Pierre Mac Orlan (Vega, 1961)
  • Montero chante Xanrof (Vega, 1961)
  • Germaine Montero, Chansons pour tous (Vega, 1963)
  • Jacques Prévert dit par Germaine Montero (Vega, 1963)
  • Germaine Montero chante Mère Courage (Le Chant du Monde, 1967)
  • Germaine Montero, Presence de Lorca (Le Chant du Monde, 1968)
  • Germaine Montero chante Bruant (Vega, 1969)

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Scérén-CNDP: Germaine Montero. August 29, 2008, accessed April 27, 2017 (French).
  2. ^ Harris M. Lentz III: Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2000 . McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, and London 2001, ISBN 1-282-28084-8 , pp. 161 .
  3. ↑ Germaine Montero. Retrieved April 27, 2017 .
  4. ^ Encyclopédisque - Discography. Germaine MONTERO. Retrieved April 29, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Patrick O'Connor: Germaine Montero . In: The Guardian . July 3, 2000 ( theguardian.com [accessed April 28, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Dictionnaire des Musiciens . Encyclopaedia Universalis France, 2016, ISBN 978-2-85229-140-9 .
personal data
SURNAME Montero, Germaine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heygel, Germaine Berthe Caroline (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French singer and actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 2000
Place of death Saint-Romain-en-Viennois