Posts in September 2009

French Music - Cleopâtre

Posted by Chanda
Sep
30
2009

One of the most popular musicals right now in France, Switzerland and Belgium is Cleopâtre: La Dernière Reine d’Egypte (Cleopatra: The Last Queen of Egypt).  Having opened at the Palais des Sports in Paris in January 2009, the show has been on tour throughout these three countries since May 2009 and will be returning to Paris at the beginning of 2010 for an extended showing.  Cleopatra is played by Sofia Essaidi who was a contestant and finalist on the highly successful Star Academy (France’s version of The One: Making a Music Star) back in 2003 when I was living in Paris.  She was born in Casablanca, Morocco and was considered by many to be the best singer and student on the show that year.  After releasing a well-received album Mon cabaret in 2005, she fought hard to get the role of Cleopatra and has since been touring with the musical produced by theater director and choreographer Kamel Ouali, who was also the head choreographer for Star Academy.  Cleopâtre is the biggest musical comedy that has ever been made in France.

Act I begins in 51 B.C. upon the death of Cleopatra’s father.  Cleopatra inherits a huge empire - the land of the Egyptian pharaohs.  Her brother does everything, including an attempted assassination, to take the throne away from her and succeeds; but she is determined to get it back.  The 17-year-old runs away with her most loyal priestess and with her charm, convinces Caesar, who was getting ready to invade her empire, to give her the throne of Egypt.  She stays in Rome, much to the dismay of the Roman senators who see her as a threat.  A few years later, Caesar is assassinated and Cleopatra immediately returns to Egypt.

With Caesar dead in Act II, Octavian and Marcus Antonius decide to split the world where one gets the West and the other the East.  As part of the agreement, Marcus Antonius takes Octavian’s sister as his wife.  At the same time, back in Egypt, Cleopatra gains the respect of her people after setting them free and is at the height of her glory.  She is a brilliant politician and demands an alliance with Marcus Antonius.  The two become involved in a passionate and very public romance which is not at all viewed well by the Romans.  Octavian demands that Marcus Antonius choose between his sister and Cleopatra.  Marcus Antonius chooses Cleopatra and war begins.  The two lovers try to fight Octavian’s warriors, but the story ends tragically.

The soundtrack album has been on sale since August 2008 and features 25 songs, short clips of which you can listen to on the official website. There are also links on the site to buy the album, which reached the 11th spot on the French music charts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy1NtK5ShrM

For more information on the show, tour dates and reservations, you can check out the official Cleopâtre website http://cleopatre.nrj.fr/index.html.

 
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Writing a Letter in French

Posted by Chanda
Sep
28
2009

Do you ever need to write a letter in French either for work, school or pleasure?  Well, today, I’m going to try to help you out a bit with this task.  First, let’s talk about a formal/business letter.  Let’s say you need to write a letter to a company asking for information.  You can put your company name and address in the top, left-hand corner.  You place the city you are writing from, a comma, and the current date in the top, right-hand corner.  About four lines down you write the name and address of the place you’re writing to again in the top, right-hand corner.  If you are writing in response or in relation to anything that has a reference number, place that reference number aligned to the left after the words “Ref.” or “Objet“.  Another four lines down, you write “Madame,” (if you’re writing to a woman) or “Monsieur,” (if you’re writing to a man) to the left.  You can write the name of the person before the comma if you know who you are writing to.  If you don’t know whether the person receiving the letter is a man or woman, you can write “Monsieur,Madame,”
Then, you indent once and begin the body of your letter.  After you finish the body of the letter, you write one of the ready-made long closings (formule de politesse) just like a paragraph.  Finally, you sign the letter aligned to the right.  If you’d like you can include your job position/written name aligned to the right just above your signature.   And that’s it!  Your letter might look something like this:

Club de Français
105, rue de la Gaité
75014 PARIS

Monsieur, Madame,

Voulez-vous avoir l’obligeance de m’envoyer une documentation sur votre club (cotisation, programme d’activités, etc.) à l’adresse suivante :

M. Sylvain BOUCHON
15, rue d’Espagne
34000 MONTPELLIER

Avec mes remerciements, veuillez agréer, Monsieur, Madame, l’expression de mes sentiments distingués.

Sylvain BOUCHON
Sylvain Bouchon

Here are some different closings you can use.  They pretty much just mean “Yours Faithfully” or “Sincerely”:
Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l’expression de mes sentiments distingués (the most common)
Je vous prie de croire, Monsieur, à l’expression de ma vive sympathie.
(replace Monsieur with Madame in the above if writing to a woman instead of a man)

Do any of you know of another formule de politesse?  Please share with us in a comment!

 
Posted under Culture, Grammar, Vocabulary
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French Language - QA Answers

Posted by Chanda
Sep
24
2009

Here are the answers to the questions exercise I posted a few days back.

Que…? Un livre.
Qui…? Annette.
À qui…? À Paul.
Combien…? Cinquante.
Pourquoi…? Parce qu’elle est triste.
Lequel…? Celui qui est rose.
Quel…? Le volleyball.
Comment…? En voiture.
Où…? À Paris.
Quand…? Hier soir.
 
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French Cuisine - Mousse au chocolat

Posted by Chanda
Sep
21
2009

Today I’m going to give you a recipe in French for chocolate mousse.

Ingrédients:
200 g de chocolat noir à pâtisser (around 2 cups)
50 g de beurre (around 3 1/2 tbsp)
3 jaunes d’oeufs
5 blancs d’oeufs
125 g de sucre en poudre (just a little under 1 cup)

1. Dans une casserole au bain-marie, faites fondre le chocolat en morceaux avec le beurre.
2. Cassez les oeufs dans un saladier, en séparant les blancs des jaunes.
3. Battez au fouet à main les jaunes avec le sucre jusqu’à ce que le mélange blanchisse.
4. Ajoutez ensuite le chocolat fondu et mélangez bien à l’aide d’une cuillère en bois.
5. Battez en neige très ferme les blancs d’oeufs.
6. Incorporez-les délicatement dans le saladier avec une cuillère en bois, en soulevant toujours le mélange de bas en haut, afin de ne pas faire retomber les blancs battus.
7. Laissez reposer plusieurs heures au réfrigérateur avant de déguster.

If you have any questions, please let us know in a comment.  Bon courage!

 
Posted under Cooking
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French Language - Questions and Answers

Posted by Chanda
Sep
18
2009

Okay, today, I’m going to give you a short question words and answers exercise.  All you have to do is match them up.  Teachers can use this activity as a lesson warmer. 

À qui…? Un livre.
Combien…? Annette.
Comment…? À Paul.
Lequel…? Cinquante.
Où…? Parce qu’elle est triste.
Pourquoi…? Celui qui est rose.
Quand…? Le volleyball.
Que…? En voiture.
Quel…? À Paris.
Qui…? Hier soir.

 Feel free to write a comment with a complete question for the correct answer as well.

 
Posted under Grammar
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