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Rose of Versailles Author Ikeda Sings at Versailles
posted on by Sarah Nelkin
Riyoko Ikeda, the 63-year-old author of the popular French Revolution manga Rose of Versailles, sang at a recital at the Palace of Versailles on the outskirts of Paris on Monday. About 100 invited guests, domestic and foreign, attended the recital in a small theatre on the palace grounds.
Ms. Ikeda was a special guest at the country's Angoulême International Comics Festival this week. She received a invitation by the festival organizer to perform a recital — just as her manga's character Queen Marie Antoinette did at the "Queen's Theatre" in her little Versailles château Petit Trianon. She sang a piece written by the real-life Queen Marie Antoinette herself, as well as parts of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro opera, some Japanese songs, and a duet with baritone singer Yoshitaka Murata. She joked with the crowd, "I thought I was not brave enough to sing Marie Antoinette's song in French in front of a French audience." NTV's News 24 program posted a video of the event in Flash and Windows Media Video formats.
Sources: Jiji Press, The Mainichi Daily News via Helen McCarthy, Frederik L. Schodt
Image © Riyoko Ikeda, TMS
