My époque française continued when I joined Carole, her husband François and the aforementioned Anita (yes, I shook the hand that shook the hand of the King and President Macron) for some musical theater in the nearby town of Hässleholm, a small town that is closer by train than by car!
The town has a relatively huge and thriving center for the arts, though not much else for tourists, so after a quick walk around, we checked in for our French themed dinner theater expérience. The food was a simple but good, boeuf bourguignon, and we had a nice table right at the front. It was definitely an older audience but I also appreciate an early dinner so that was fine with me.
The show dialogue was all på Svenska and the music was entirely en Français so I was at a bit of a disadvantage and had to work very hard to follow the story. The performance was wonderful with top notch musicians supporting Karin Grönberg’s one-woman show, Mitt Frankrike, about a young Swedish woman whose dreams of a “year abroad in France” were dashed by covid. She makes the best of it and tells about her journey in song. This included drinking wine and completely changing outfits multiple times while singing. Impressive. The music was beautiful and I found myself tearing up without even understanding the words.
Afterwards we stayed to chat with the performers. The French trio were sort of the VIP guests since they are the experts on France, and Carole had previously met Karin, who invited them especially to come to see her creation. They were suitably impressed with the show and even asked for an autograph which I believe made the evening quite special for Karin.
Now I’m a bit too tired to finish the rest of my musical interlude post so stay tuned for Part 2, the choir retreat! Lund International Student Choir travels to Sjöröd, Lake Red, where we perform for the birds and hares and a few surprised hikers 😉
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