Pietragalla sings Barbara. The dancer in the footsteps of the diva

“Were you dancing? I am very happy about it. Well! Sing now.” The inversion of the morality of The Cicada and the Ant by La Fontaine could serve as a nod to Marie-Claude Pietragalla’s first record. The dance star dares to take an unexpected step: to cover some of the great hits of the singer Barbara, who died in 1997.

This bet is rooted in a founding meeting, in the dressing rooms of the Théâtre du Châtelet. It was “a month of October,” notes the choreographer, without specifying what year. This desire to immerse oneself in the world of the long brunette lady first took the form of a “single on stage”, created in 2024, in which the former star of the Paris Opera ballet embodies the singer.

The long-awaited record confirms the accuracy of this intuition. We listen to it with caution at first, as Barbara’s unique tone, her personality, her piano playing permeate her songs.

Then something happens. Pietragalla reveals a fragile, fair voice, supported by the delicate and inspired piano of Yannaël Quenel. The emblematic titles – Göttingen (really successful), Nantes, From the tip of the lips – find a new color there.

A little cantataperformed in duet with Serge Lama, brings extra emotion. Only small false note on the 13 tracks: the song The pain of livingwhose strong finale in its orchestration slightly breaks the controlled sobriety of the whole.

The album cover plays on the physical resemblance between two ladies in black. But in the songs, Pietragalla does not look for any imitation effect. She places her vocal cords in the footsteps of her eldest, as if to lend her breath to the singer. “Barbara pierced my soul with her whispers and transformed my daily life into poetry,” she confides.

Far from being a simple compilation of covers, this disc reveals the trace of an artistic filiation. This fragile testimony of the transmission of the woman who sings to the one who dances will accompany Marie-Claude Pietragalla, both cicada and ant, throughout her tribute tour to Barbara, which has already begun and which will continue across France throughout 2026.