Last fall, we attended a performance by a Sufi choir and a Whirling Dervish in the seaside village of Meze. Last month, a quartet entertained us with a capella Corsican sacred and folk music in a church in the neighboring village of Ouveillan. In between, we've enjoyed jazz, classical, and world music in a variety of venues at prices ranging from free to 60€ per ticket. When we moved to the very rural southwest of France, I had no idea that our choices would be so diverse and so satisfying. Typifying such unexpectedly high-level entertainment choices is an upcoming benefit concert in Capestang, just a few kilometers away from us here in Quarante, on August 11th. A senior chorister performing some of the same songs that he sang at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? Really? The organist during that same wedding performing jazz piano? World premiere of excerpts from a new ballet by a Grammy-awarded company? Show tunes? And a finale led by a mezzo-soprano who has sung
MUSINGS OF AN EXPAT AMERICAN