George Bernard Shaw:
"....And I was not at all deceived in my expectancy. It amuses
her to tell interviewers that she cannot sing, and has no gestures ; but I need
not say that there would be very little fun for her in that if she were not one
of the best singers and pantomimists in Europe. She divided her programme into
three parts : Ironic songs, Dramatic songs, and but perhaps I had better use
the French heading here, and say ' Chansons Legeres.' For though Mile. Guilbert
sings the hymns of a very ancient faith, profusely....
.....Technically Mile. Guilbert is a highly accomplished artist.
She makes all her effects in the simplest way and with perfect judgment. Like
the ancient Greeks, not to mention the modern music-hall artists, she relies on
the middle and low registers of her voice, they being the best suited for
perfectly well-controlled declamation ; but her cantabile is charming, thanks to
a fine ear and a delicate rhythmic faculty. Her command of every form of
expression is very remarkable, her tones ranging from the purest and sweetest pathos
to the cockniest Parisian cynicism. There is not a trace of the rowdy
restlessness and forced go of the English music-hall singer about her ;....."
('Yvette Guilbert: Struggles and Victories', 1910)
