Nicole Peyrafitte celebrates Augustus Saint Gaudens

On 8 August this summer Nicole Peyrafitte staged a performance commissioned as part of the celebrations of the American sculpture Augustus Saint Gaudens’ 100th death year. This happened in the small town of Aspet in the Comminges region of the Pyrenees, the place where Saint Gaudens’ father was born. In the extract above, you can see her “saupiquet transcontinental” – a stew of (adzuki)beans, vegetables, ham & maple syrup which NP will feed to the 200-strong audience at the end of the show – simmering on stage-left between son Miles Joris-Peyrafitte in charge of electronics and NP singing, while to her right is baryton Jean Ribet, a long-time resident of Aspet, and Jerome Pizzato on guitar. The extract on video here is a piece called “No Name” – music & lyrics by NP – speaking to, singing to, my own favorite Saint Gaudens sculpture, the bronze figure Henry Adams asked him to create for the tomb of his wife (later to be Henry’s tomb too) in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington D.C.