Week Five: France

After so much travel and singing, it was time for a break. When the group went to France for its final few concerts, the itinerary appropriately read (as shown above) "rest and sightseeing in Cap d'Ail." Located in southern France on the border of Monaco, the small seaside village would have been a haven for almost a hundred busy singers. The photographs taken in Cap d'Ail show relaxed and cheerful faces as depicted in the several photos below.

This color photograph depicts three Hamilton College students in Cap d'Ail, France, with Eric Thorkilsen '73 in the center.

Three Chatham students relax outdoors in Cap d'Ail.

A Hamilton student plays guitar in Cap d'Ail for a Chatham student who sits at his feet.

A Hamilton College student poses with two Chatham students on a beach in Cap d'Ail.

“Perhaps,” Thorkilsen mused, “it was appropriate that a tour beginning with an aeronautical bomb should end with a gastronomical one—though this time no faking was involved.” On the eve of their final concert with the Paul Kuentz Chamber Orchestra in Paris, the group ate what they thought was the best meal of their tour. However, about two hours before the performance, they were hit by the “gastronomical bomb” that caused “40 hands [to reach] for the door knob of the one toilet at our disposal.” Thankfully, the concert was a success. They performed Bach's Magnificat for a 3,000-member audience! Fankhauser wrote that the director of Deutsche Grammophon “sought us out both at intermission and at the end of the concert to show his appreciation, while the audience showed theirs by asking for encores until, after five, we had run out of pieces to sing.”

Lorenzo Malfatti (left) shakes hands with Paul Kuentz, conductor of the Paris Chamber Orchestra, at a concert venue in Paris on July 5, 1972. Hamilton student, Eric Thorkilsen, is pictured in the background.