It’s a classical funeral for Johnny Hallyday

It’s a classical funeral for Johnny Hallyday

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norman lebrecht

December 10, 2017

The opera soprano Julie Fuchs sang Ave Maria, accompanied by the pianist Yvan Cassar and the cellist Gautier Capuçon, at yesterday’s obsequies for the French rock star Johnny Hallyday.

They also played an arrangement of Edith Piaf’s torch-song  l’Hymne à l’amour and the Médiation from Massenet’s Thaïs.

A million people turned out on the streets of Paris.

Watch.

Comments

  • Theodore McGuiver says:

    It was quite an amazing day, all told.

  • Mike Schachter says:

    Like Piaf’s funeral, the French do take popular icons seriously, Maybe nothing equivalent elsewhere in Europe since Verdi

  • jerry says:

    Sylvie Vartan the love of his life and as big of a star as well was there too

  • Fred Plotkin says:

    Chopin’s funeral was held in the same church in 1849. It was restaged 150 years later, in 1999, with the same music. I attended that one. The French do certain things incredibly well.

  • John de Jong says:

    Actually, it was NOT a classical funeral, although there was some classical music. Nobody will remember the classical music or describe the funeral as classical. Everybody will remember the band of Johnny playing his music at several moments during the funeral liturgy , while the crowd in and outside the church was clapping rhythmically.

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