Gilbert Becaud is the most covered French artist in the world and has a taste for words and melodies beyond compare. At the turn of the 1960’s, he was a prominent figure whose song titles “Age tendre et tête de bois” and “Salut les copains” were borrowed by the most emblematic teen tv shows and his most famous song “Et maintenant” had just been released (1961). At the peak of his fame, Gilbert Bécaud undertook a wager against the direction his artistic career was going: composing an opera, which would combine a musical drama and his talents as a popular composer. Before being known as “Monsieur 100.000 volts”, Bécaud underwent classical music training at the Music Conservatory of Nice and began his career composing music for films, including but not limited to work for Marcel Carmé. This booklet by Pierre Delanoë, Jacques Emmanuel and Louis Amade focuses on The Opéra d’Aran, an enigmatic piece of work, which attracted le Tout-Paris with its shows at le Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1962. The opera then went on a world tour for over 30 years. This album set by Laurent Balandras and Olivier Julien, made in agreement with Gilbert Bécaud’s successors contains a restored version of the opera and documents extracted from Becaud’s personal magnetic tapes that were never released before. Patrick Frémeaux