Sigma Alpha Iota

14 Spring 2022 • sai-national.org Cposers By Rhonda Bachmann When the French and American governments collaborated to create the Mission for the Bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989, I received their joint patronage. By then, I had already created my first Paris production with my late husband, the British Music Director Arthur Hammond, in the role of Queen Marie- Antoinette. My agent, Marcelline Lenoir, had previously cast me in the role for a proposed film, and I had begun my role study. It seemed to me that Queen Marie-Antoinette could not be the negative, frivolous figure so oen portrayed because it did not coincide with the true image reflected in her music. I had heard her romance C'est mon ami (He is my betrothed), as sung by the Brazilian soprano Bidù Sayao, whose acquaintance I had the privilege of making in New York. Arthur and I set out to find the rest of her music. e popular Parisian newspaper, France Soir, reported on our official Paris Bicentennial concert, which received the congratulations of Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris: "Rhonda Bachmann sings Marie-Antoinette. A beautiful tribute to Queen Marie-Antoinette sponsored by the Mission for the Bicentennial at the church of St. Julien le Pauvre. Rhonda Bachmann, an American soprano with a strong interest in the Queen's fate, has gathered together all the compositions and poems of Marie-Antoinette: He is my bethrothed, Scarlet Rose, Poor Jamie, To my daughter, Revelation, but also all the plays that she interpreted and presented to the court from Grétry and Gluck to Jean- Jacques Rousseau. Without a doubt, the most complete show that could have been imagined until now on the musical sensitivity and artistic influence of the last Queen of France." For Arthur and me, this was only the beginning of our five years performing together. He composed all the arrangements in 18th century Tom Tolman, courtesy of MacDowell Tom Tolman, courtesy of MacDowell Marie-Antnee The Artistic Queen Rhonda Bachmann and Arthur Hammond in concert Rhonda Bachmann and Arthur Hammond in concert at the Galerie des Cotelle, Grand Trianon, Versailles. at the Galerie des Cotelle, Grand Trianon, Versailles.

• Cover