Catherine Ringer in Uzès and Montpellier for “The eroticism of living”: “A search for joy and intensity!”

Alice Mendelson with Catherine Ringer, the meeting of a joie de vivre and an immarcescible fantasy! Mathias Walter

The immense singer Catherine Ringer returns with a poetic show “The eroticism of living, 95 years and a whole life before”, inspired by the work of ;Alice Mendelson. Before the performances on January 26 at L'Ombrière in Uzès and January 28 at the Opéra-Comédie in Montpellier, she speaks to Midi Libre. With a frankness that pleases as much as its fantasy! 

How did you encounter the poetry of Alice Mendelson ?

Alice Mendelson was a friend of my painter father, Sam Ringer. She was in the Resistance, made a career as a French teacher in a high school in Paris, and all this time, secretly wrote… But have you read the book? argument of the show ? What is written is my own so I am not going to tell you the same thing again, all the same, if ?

We'll be honest with you: we'd love to!

Good. When I had to sort the works that my father had left me, I was helped to make the inventory by Pascal Quéré, an experienced storyteller, who had trained Alice Mendelson turned to the art of storytelling when she retired from teaching. It was he who introduced me to his poetry. And when at the start of the 2021 school year, I was offered carte blanche to support the small theater of La Huchette, in economic difficulties after the Covid episode, I thought that it would be a good idea to say his poetry. I had read them, I really liked them. I showed them to a friend, Mauro Gioia (which means "Maurice the joy"!): a Neapolitan singer, director, with whom I had worked twenty years previously for the musical comedy by Alfredo Arias, Concha Bonita. I asked him to give me an eye and an ear… Ah, you see, here I am repeating the words of the note of intent! (laughs)

Maybe, but it's so much better if you say it!

Mmh ? Mauro told me that if it was going to last three quarters of an hour, or an hour, there had to be music. So we asked someone we both knew, but especially him: Grégoire Hetzel, a film score composer. It amused him to come and do this with me, because it was something he was not used to doing, putting on and playing on the scene. As we really liked it, we did it again a few times. And since it was great, we went to see a turner, the Evening Visitors, who organized a real tour for us.

What did you particularly like about his poems ?

I found them beautiful and how should I say… vibrant. But if you want, I'll send you an extract. You could also publish an extract in the newspaper, that would be great! I can even read some to you, if that amuse you (and to do so after our affirmative response, Editor's note!).

The extract read by Catherine Ringer

And then
If your mouth is stubborn
If your hands are fervent
And greedy with pride
If your fingers chatter
Whispering everywhere
What they heard
My cheeks will be violent
My irradiated eyes
And behind a look
Transparent you will perceive
A great tumult and bouncing echoes
And my life will all come to you
On edge
Deep in flesh
A desire deployed
Total presence.

We feel a kind of indulgence in his writing…

Yes, a treat of life! A search for joy, presence and intensity. His oldest poems are from 1947, and his most recent from 2021: it's quite impressive to travel through an entire existence. She evokes love, but also moments of life, a visit to a care center, her grandchildren… The situations are varied but there is always this way of strength, this grace, of grace. #39;manage to capture the joy in small things, a light, a color, a silhouette… These are beautiful poems, which have an effect, that's it.

The simplicity of her expression means that we are immediately with her…

That's it! The simplicity of what is said reaches us directly. And I'm really happy to pass this on!

There is this sentence from Alice Mendelson in the famous press kit: "To age well, it is good to have the virus of joy…

It's true that this one goes well, eh! (laughs) That said, as in the film Auntie Danielle, there are people who age well because they are angry, or angry. hate. There are also people who live very old while being very mean! It must have to do with a certain degree of intensity of life ? What is certain is that Alice Mendelson is, at 97 years old, a profoundly luminous person.

Has she seen your show ?

Yes, twice. The first time at the little theater of La Huchette and a second time at the theater of Auxerre. She was delighted. Really. Especially since in Auxerre, the theater helped with the publication by Rhubarbe editions of its collection of poems, L'érotisme de vivre. For her it is a wonderful end-of-life surprise to be published, read and applauded in this way. Until then his writing belonged to the private field, it had never been published!

This is a real reading, not a recitation. The singer and dancer that you are, is never very far away, pops up everywhere… How would you define this show ?

Hey, hey, hey! (laughs) You said it well, I put everything I know how to do into it. I haven't learned everything by heart, that's for sure. I'm like a musician reading a score, if you will. Even though I know them very well. Half reading, half singing, half everything that I am! Some poems are completely set to song, others simply said, even if I can change the tone, vary the speed. Sometimes Grégoire Hetzel accompanies me on piano or synthesizer; sometimes he intervenes on the silences. It’s actually very beautiful, the way the music comes and goes! In short, it's a show full of beauty, full of intensity, which doesn't last three and a half hours, we don't have time to get bored and in generally we come out very happy, that's it!

We were just going to talk to you about the reception. You know that whatever you do, you are expected… and hoped for ?

Yes, it's an honor that the public does me to be interested in what I do… again! (laughs) I have this chance, and I am, yes, very happy about it. But that doesn't mean it's good every time. If I presented something rubbish, it might change. Or if I did something that interests me but that doesn't interest people… And then, “people”, it's not a block homogeneous!

But since you haven't done anything wrong up until then, over time, we've developed habits, you see. And we come to see you because you are a model…

Thank you…

Including, if you allow us, for the elegance of your maturity…

Well, thank you…

There is no flattery: the question of artists who know how to age is fascinating, and too rarely asked!

Not just artists, by the way. This is also a question that is asked a lot, now that we are living much older. I don't know, three hundred years ago, people would die at 45 or 50. Since then, we have learned to treat many of the major illnesses that fall on us in these waters! It's always better to accept the passage of time, I believe, and to appreciate all the stages, with their disadvantages but also their advantages.

Alice Mendelson says, precisely, that "getting old is good" but also that she "has fun living" ; which could be from you, no ?

I am only the interpreter of his words, I have not written any words in this affair, nor any music. But actually, I admit that I could have said that: "Have fun living". And on this point, moreover, I find what my father told me: “I don't work, I have fun.” This means that we must always maintain a certain freshness, a flexibility, like in a game. And fantasy!

"The eroticism of living, 95 years and a whole life before" to see on Friday, January 26, at 8:30 p.m., at L'Ombrière in Uzès and on Sunday, January 28, at 5 p.m., at the Opéra-Comédie in Montpellier. I subscribe to read more