Last Sunday my husband and I went to the famous Parisian flea market, Le Marché aux Puces. With its 2,500 stalls, Le Marche aux Puces is definitely the largest flea market in Paris and possibly the largest in the world. You can buy just about everything. There are fashion stalls, antiques, paintings, books, jewelry and music. So, among my Sunday acquisitions there was an LP of Rina Ketty. I had not heard of her before. I bought the LP because I liked the cover photo of Rina Ketty in black and white and I also generally like the music of the 1930s-1940s. Rina Ketty has turned out to be one of my wonderful recent music discoveries. The voice of this beautiful, Italian-born singer was a real delight. After starting her career in Montmartre in the 1930s, at the same time as famous painters Salvador Dali, Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso, she changed her name from Cesarina Picchetto to the more romantic and scenic Rina Ketty. She quickly became famous for her voice and slight yet elegant accent. She stopped singing during the Great War. Fame came back to her in 1945. She retired in the 1950s in Quebec, Canada. Every time I feel a little down now I listen to her songs. And suddenly life gets warmer and a much brighter.
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