MICHEL ARBATZ CHANTE "DESNOS & MERVEILLES"

La Baleine Rouge—a multifaceted, artistic, and whimsical community space run by the association Le Retour des Troubadours—welcomes you on Saturday, October 3, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. for an exceptional evening of theater and song. Michel Arbatz—singer, actor, and wordsmith—presents his new production, “Desnos & Merveilles,” a freely interpreted tribute to Robert Desnos (1900–1945), a surrealist poet who died in exile, accompanied by his longtime musical partner Olivier-Roman Garcia on guitar, bouzouki, and arrangements. Robert Desnos: Between Violence and Fantasy What most people know about the poet Robert Desnos is perhaps “La Fourmi” (18 meters long), which they learned in school, and the fact that he died in a concentration camp. But his life, like his poetry, navigates between violence and fantasy— Unbridled surrealism, trips to Cuba, a meeting with Garcia Lorca, a passionate love for Youki, his involvement in radio and the Resistance, right up until his death at the Terezin camp on June 8, 1945. “Desnos & Merveilles”—a journey through songs, poems, and anecdotes In a nearly bare setting, Michel Arbatz recounts the life of Robert Desnos through some fifteen of his most iconic poems and songs— the young surrealist visionary, the writer traveling in Cuba, his encounter with Garcia Lorca, the man madly in love with Youki, the radio personality, and the Resistance fighter. A tribute, told in a very free-spirited tone, to a man who loved freedom. Michel Arbatz has already dedicated an album to Desnos, which was honored with a ffff Telérama rating? "Desnos & Merveilles" is his brand-new stage production, enriched with previously unseen archival footage.