L'Amant d'Amanda (chansonnette, 1876)

Overview

A comic café-concert song that was the hit of Paris in 1876. Its refrain points out «ce beau garçon-là» as «l'amant d'Amanda». The song is associated with the singer Libert: a 1910 recording is catalogued as «L'amant d'Amanda, imitation de Libert», with words and music credited to Émile Carré and Victor Robillard (Phonobase, fiche 6361). Its success in 1876 is shown by the spin-offs published that year: Édouard Deransart's quadrille-chansonnette «L'amant d'Amanda» and Robillard and Carré's «Réponse à l'amant d'Amanda» (IMSLP). The authorship of the original 1876 song is not confirmed beyond the Phonobase credit.

Relevance to Marie

• 14 September 1876, back in Poltava: «Mais aujourd'hui je ne fais que répéter "Tu vois ce beau garçon-là, c'est l'amant d'A, c'est l'amant d'Amanda" / Tout le monde connaît cette chanson» (066.0236–0237). That afternoon at Kharkov station she had shown Pacha to passers-by with «Tu vois ce beau garçon-là ? Eh bien c'est celui qui craint Michel» (066.0213), a parody of the refrain.
• 11 October 1876: «la chansonnette dont on raffole à Paris est "L'amant d'Amanda" dans un des derniers numéros du "Figaro"» (066.0759); her mock letter to the Figaro that follows is signed «Amanda» (see L'Histoire du petit Gambetta).

Note on the Mon Journal index

The Mon Journal t.9 index has «Amanda (chanson) (fille du grand-duc de Gerolstein) : 76, 115-116», merging the song (p. 76) with the princess Amanda of the Gambetta parody. The two are distinct; AMANDA is a different person (1879).

Translation

A song title: keep «L'amant d'Amanda» in French; the refrain Marie quotes may be translated with the original in a footnote.

References in Diary

• First mentioned: 1876-09-14 (066.0236)
• 1876-10-11 (066.0759)