Music, food and art in French evenings at Mandarin
MANILA, Philippines - Mandarin Oriental, Manila presents two romantic French evenings in April that combine a performance of visiting French singer Mouron, known as the “Diva of Chanson,” with altruism, French cuisine and artistry.
Mouron is slated to perform on April 1 at the MO Lounge, and on April 2 at a dinner concert at The Tivoli, with Hymnes à l’Amour (Songs of Love) as the theme. Her shows will be for the benefit of the d’Aboville Foundation and Demo Farm Inc.’s reforestation and rural electrification project for the Iraya Mangyan community in Barangay Baclayan, the only barangay without electricity in the municipality of Puerto Galera. A display of French-Filipina visual artist Olivia d’Aboville and a silent auction of one of her works will also be held on the two evenings, for the same beneficiary.
Singing in the tradition of Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Charles Trenet and Juliette Greco, Mouron is accompanied on the piano by British musician Terry Truck. Her Manila performance is part of a six-city 2011 Asian Tour. Mouron was born into a musical family, and began to write her own songs at the age of 12. Mouron’s first album recording, which was awarded the Grand Prix Academie Charles Cros in 1988, was followed by two more albums: “Quinze Ann es d’Amour” and “Peut-être domain” in 2004. At age 17, she performed in France’s most famous theater, L’Olympia, with the popular French group of the late Seventies, Michel Fugain & Le Big Bazar. She has performed in major theaters in France and has traveled to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Slovenia, Ukraine, Belgium, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, as an informal ambassador of French music.
At the concert on April 1, there will be French wines and hors d’oeuvres, and is priced at P1,000 net, while the dinner concert on April 2 is at P3,500 net for a four-course menu by The Tivoli’s French chef Remi Vercelli, paired with French wines, from Sommelier Selection.
The wine-pairing dinner menu will consist of: gourmand salad with foie gras terrine; Southwest France AOC Jurançon Moelleux Clos Lapeyre 2008; poached lapu-lapu, asparagus and orange hollandaise; Loire Valley AOC Vouvray Sec Domaine Champalou 2009, braised Wagyu beef cheeks, old mustard parmentier style, Beaujolais AOC Brouilly Domaine Lapalu Cuvée Vieilles Vignes 2008; and Nougat parfait, red berries coulis and red wine cherries, Jura AOC Arbois Domaine Tissot Cremant-Sparkling.
