Edith Piaf & Théo Sarapo - What is love for?
OR Εdith Piaf is perhaps the most important presence of the French Variety scene. Her petite physique fell behind in front of her enchanting voice with her sweet complexion and dramatic style in her eyes……
In 15, having discovered her wonderful voice, left her father to live in Paris, singing and playing the accordion in the streets…..
OR Εdith Giovanna Gassion acquired the nickname Piaf -in Parisian slang means sparrow- at the urging of Louis Leplee, director of the most elegant cabaret in the Champs Elysees, which gave her her first job at a nightclub.
She adopted the name by which she crossed the borders of Europe and with that she created a beloved figure, synonymous with free passion.
Her artistic identity approved songs that idealized her life on the streets, emphasizing its inner strength and rejecting the comme-il-faut attitudes of the French of the time.
The great Frenchwoman sang about love, the sorrow, hatred and joy, emotions that dominated her life. Songs like “Life in pink” and “The crowd”, launched her fame and made her the most popular singer in France.
The legendary song «Non, I regret nothing" (No, I do not regret anything) sounds like a "mantra" in her interpersonal relationships. She had chosen to live unconditionally and be defined only by her emotions, which made her prone to abuse.
She lived from love and people loved her through her voice…
Edith Piaf's thunderous love and love letter to the legend of Greek theater, Dimitris Horn!!
At 18 Of September 1946 appears at the theater "Marika Kotopouli" to give her first concert in Greece. The 31-year-old French singer is fascinated by the 25-year-old actress who had gone to watch the legend of French music on stage. After their first meeting, a unilateral siege begins.
At 20 Of September 1946, two days after the concert, Piaf writes a 4-page letter to Dimitris Horn or Takis, as she liked to call him, desperately asking him to go find her in Paris.
Petros Vergos, founder of the eponymous auction house, put up for auction the love letters that the famous singer sent to her favorite actress:
"I love you as I have never loved anyone, Taki, do not hurt my heart! You can come to Paris with Peace, but I probably do not see it, so I will come to you in November, no one in the world will stop me from coming to Athens, but what you need to do without hesitation is to come to America in December, so we will mix again there and from there I hope to bring you to Paris, that when you know it you will love it as much as I do, If you go to London after America I will go too, I would like to live very close to you, I think I could make you happy and I also think I understand you very well. I know I'm able to give it all up for you… "
Petros Vergos reports to the Guardian: "We will never know how Horn felt about Piaf , but with their blind passion these manuscripts prove that it was a thunderous love for Piaf. "
The acquaintance with Sarapo
In the early 60's, was freed from her unfulfilled passion for the Greek actor when she met love in the person of Theofanis Lampoukas. The hairdresser and singer, twenty years her junior, acquired the artistic nickname Theo Sarapo, from the Greek phrase "I love you", with which it is similar when "R" is pronounced with a French accent.
The news of her wedding fell like lightning in the French salons, since the age difference was quite large. Their answer was given with the song "What's the point of love?». (What is the meaning of love?;).
Edith Piaf was already at the west end of her career and life, after he was stricken with incurable liver cancer in the 1950s and 10 years later he was addicted to morphine.
Piaf and Sarapo were married in October 1962 but they were separated by the death of the first, a year later, same day with her boyfriend, Jean Cocteau.
Piaf went out on 48 her years of cirrhosis and left to her husband her legend and many debts.
The Archbishop of Paris refused to bury her because of her "unrepentant and sinful life". After all, she was buried in the Paris cemetery Père-Lachaise, next to the grave of her 2-year-old daughter, who had lost to meningitis and her father, while at her funeral attended over 100.000 people.
Eight years later, Sarapo reunited with his "eternal love" after a car accident, at the age of just 34 years. He was buried next to Piaf. The inscription on their common grave is written in French: "Love conquers everything".