Contest is Officially Over!

I know I said I would post the solution this week-end, but things didn’t go as planned. Far from the comfort of my home and my little computer on Sunday night, I did try to sneak out of bed to send a quick post, around 4am, but was sharply reminded of House Rules regarding computer use, by the most evil phosphorescent glare, this side of the Pacific. I figured I’d rather be one day late on my promise than end up with a ritual katana neatly inserted between shoulder blades.

Without further ado:

The Answers

By order of appearance in the entry (I’ll leave it up to you to match translations and text).

• La Traviata: “Noi siamo zingarelle” (”We are the gypsies”) - Verdi, on a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
• Carmen: Acte 1: “Quand je vous aimerai?… L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (”Love is an undomesticated bird”) - Bizet, on a libretto by Meilhac and Halévy (based on the novel by Prosper Mérimée).
• La Vie En Rose - Original lyrics composed and sung by Edith Piaf. Though the only version I have on my hard drive is the cover by Grace Jones.
• La Traviata (again): “Ah, fors’è lui che l’anima”
• Chan Chan - Compay Segundo - Calle Salud
• Le Tourbillon - sung by French actress Jeanne Moreau, written by Cyrus Bassiak: this song is featured in François Truffaut’s famous movie Jules et Jim.
• She’s Lost Control - Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1980)
• Everybody Knows - Leonard Cohen
• Il n’y a pas d’amour heureux - Georges Brassens - Les Amoureux des Bancs Publiques
• Die Lorelei - Schubert (many other versions) based on a poem by Heinrich Heine
• Kyrie - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem: Κυριε ἐλεησον means “Lord, have mercy!” in classical greek. What? No, I’m not joking. I did mention greek in the rules, did I or did I not?

For your ears only, and very temporarily, I have uploaded all the ones I have on digital support, here. But hurry up, as I’ll probably remove these very much not-copyright-safe files within a day or two.

The Winner

All right, now for the man who shall be getting our unrestrained admiration, as well as a bottle of that nasty paper glue solvant the locals refer to as “alcohol” (comes in a cute bottle) [a picture will soon follow]:
Well, there is no surprise and Mr. Tuitui (helped by family) is the lucky winner. With an impressive 77% result (perhaps a bit less, as I suspect he only spotted the Traviata once, but let’s not be picky) or 10 tracks out of 13. Being French helped, seeing how it was heavily represented with four tracks. But then again, English would have been just a bit too easy.
Congratulation, Mr. Tuitui, my people shall be contacting your people and arrange for delivery. Preferably on a drier day than today.

Another One?

I think I may, when I have a sec, do another one. I’ll try to spend more than 10 minutes this time and make an entry slightly less nonsensical. In fact, perhaps you won’t even notice it’s there. Keep your eyes peeled.