Search - Michel Legrand :: Peaud Ane

Beautiful Fairytale Music!

Alicia | USA | 06/01/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Peau d'Ane means Donkey Skin, which is a famous French fairytale. The story is that a king promises his dying wife to marry only one who is more beautiful than she, resulting in the princess running away draped in an ugly donkey skin so she won't be recognised. All the townspeople shun her because of this. She of course gets together with a handsom prince in the end. :)The music does the magic of this Cinderella story justice. Michel Legrand wrote the soundtrack to this seventies movie musical, and he is a wonderful composer! There are 24 tracks plus 5 bonus tracks (which are different versions of some of the best songs) on this CD. It comes with a little 10-page booklet about the movie (in French). The music is very magical; the songs are all beautiful, both the ones with lyrics and the background tracks. Everyone sings pleasantly, and the orchestra is great. There is lots of violin and piccolo, and many of the songs have a minuet feel to them. It's become one of my favorite CDs!The first track (called Générique, which plays over the credits in the film) I'd just like to mention because I think it's so lovely! It's a wonderful orchestra piece that starts off with sweeping violins and adds in other instruments and a Disney-esque chorus "ah-ing" in the background. This is the only lyric-less music I'll talk about because I can't write about all 29 tracks, but really the background tracks are just as good as the songs with lyrics!I'll just quickly run through the songs with lyrics in order now. "Amour, Amour" was my favorite song in the movie, but unfortunately the version included on this disk drops the organ accompaniment of the movie for more of a seventies beat and some happy-organ. It's still a good song, but not *as* good. It's a song about love (duh!) sung by the princess (Catharine Deneuve). "Conseils de la Fée des Lilas" is a catchy song sung by the Lilac Fairy (Delphine Seyrig) advising the princess that no one can ever find happiness married to their father. I love this song! It's one of those that reminds me of classical minuets. "Les Insultes" is a sad song where the townspeople tease and insult the princess, who is working miserably as a scullery maid (for a woman who spits frogs!). "Chanson du Prince" is a quiet song where the Prince Charming sings of his longing for love with lots of soft accompaniment (even some music box) underneath. "Recette pour un Cake d'Amour" is such a cute song about making a cake for your love! She sings each step of the recipe. This one is accompanied by classy piano and horns. "Rêves secrets d'une Prince et d'une Princesse" is a tender balad between the princess and her prince, when they meet in a dream. It was sort of weird being stuck in the movie where it was, I guess they just decided they needed a duet before the movie was over. "Les Massage des Doigts" is a fast song, very funny, about the townspeoples' desperate attempts to make their fingers small enough to fit the ring the prince is trying on everyone.The first of the bonus song is a jazz version of "Amour, Amour", sung by a male instead of female voice. Not bad. The 2nd is a different recording of "Conseils de la Fée des Lilas", which sounds pretty close to the first version on the CD. Then is "Chanson du Prince" with some different accompaniment. Then comes yet another recording of "Conseils de la Fée des Lilas", which is sounds significantly different in both accompaniment and the rhythm the singer follows, as well as being a little more spoken than the previous versions. The last bonus song is "Rêves Secrets d'une Prince et d'une Princesse" which has a different flow to it entirely.This is such a wonderful CD, I'm throughly happy with it! True magic in every track. If you love fairytales, musicals, or just good music, you should get this!"