(7.9) Zut alors. Tonight’s WaterFire will honor our alliance with France starting with a special ceremony at the Waterplace Basin Stage when French Consul Valery Freland to Providence will be conveying a knighthood in the Legion of Honor to RI Seaman First Class Ernest Frank Corvese for his service in liberating France in WWII. (The gondolier may want to pole down the river at this time.)
The ceremony for Bastille Day will begin at 8:20 with a short program by the Alliance Française Chorus singing four French songs. The ceremony for Mr. Corvese will begin at 8:30. Noted Jazz singer Rose Weaver will join the Alliance Française Chorus to sing The Star-Spangled Banner and La Marseillaise in honor of Consul Freland and Seaman Corvese. Ms. Weaver recently returned from a trip to Paris.
So that’s very cool. But stick around for the sabrage.
Robert Burke, owner of the French restaurant Pot au Feu, will be sabering open a Jeroboam (3 liter) bottle of Moet Chandon champagne donated for the occasion by Moet Chandon. Sabering or Sabrage is a technique of slicing the glass neck off of a bottle of champagne that was first established by the Hussars, Napoleon’s light cavalry. Then rose petals will be scattered upon the water in honor of the many lives lost in World War II.
This usually works . . . but give the man room. It’s just like a Gallagher show, except instead of watermelon it’s glass.
Ignition 8:42pm, Saturday, July 9, WaterFire