COLETTE

Novelist Sidonie Gabrielle Claudine Colette (1873-1954) gave a woman's voice of immense insight, wit, sensitivity and boulevard charm to the Belle Époque. Leslie Caron, the baby-faced ballerina discovered by Gene Kelly, delightfully played Colette's gamine Gigi in the Lerner and Loewe musical film version of the 1943 novella or, more properly, récit. When writer and performer meet again in this audio production, an especially happy reunion they should have. However, Caron attacks the live reading of autobiographical writings with an affected fatalism, perhaps appropriate to the author's tone, but hardly endearing. Sometimes one struggles to penetrate her accent and odd cadences. She sometimes gives us "But what if she doesn't marry grandmama?" instead of "But what if she doesn't marry, grandmama?" Sound quality is below par, and the producer has made an arbitrary and distracting use of sound and musical underscoring. Not merely disappointing: amateurish. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB 97]