Paris Populi

Description

Paris … the story that flows … The formidable popular fresco on the life of Paris and Parisians from the revolution of 1789 until the liberation of Paris in August 1944.
A symphony of words by Georges Coulonges magnificently set to music by Francis Lemarque!
How Paris Populi was created
If there is one singer who symbolizes the city of Paris, it is indeed Francis Lemarque, and in 1972, the writer and lyricist Georges Coulonges knows this well. He dreams of writing a great epic about Paris with him and presents him with a text of about a hundred lines titled Paris Populi. The life of Paris and Parisians from the revolution of 1789 until the liberation of Paris in August 1944.
A few days later, Francis Lemarque sends him the first music that it inspired him.
"Immediately I had the premonition of what this 'Paris Populi' would be," he recounts. The verses were so beautiful that the music came like a symphony. We worked for nearly two years, we were going so fast that, to save time, Georges dictated sequences to me over the phone; as soon as we hung up, I rushed to the piano, and what he had dictated to me was set to music the same day and I called him to sing it to him while he dictated other sequences."
After a first version released in 1975 as a triple album with many performers … Francis Lemarque will present Paris Populi at the Théâtre de la Ville, then at the Cirque d'Hiver and at the Fête de L'Humanité, and then decides to give another version of this work to make it travel because bringing together the artists is very random. It will be 6 musicians, one singer, and a visual show.
Then in 1977, Paris Populi settles in with audiovisual in the small room of the TEP.