CHADAL, Marcelle

French composer, pianist, accompanist and writer. Marcelle Chadal began working professionally as a pianist at the age of sixteen and developed a long career as an accompanist for opera and cabaret singers. Alongside her performing activities, she composed light music, songs, piano and stage works, and also wrote poetry and texts.
Her works include the one-act opéra-comique Si l’amour passe... (1932), Rose, ma voisine (1933), Pas de fumée sans feu (1936), the song L’araignée (1938), Le muguet de Paris, Claire fontaine (1931), and the Madrigal for flute and piano (1982). She was also the author of Les secrets de la p’tite boîte à musique, a collection of theatrical and musical anecdotes.
Chadal remained active well into the twentieth century. In 1995 she was the subject of Robinson Savary’s short film Le Tango des vitamines, which portrays her in old age and records her career as a professional pianist, accompanist, composer and poet.