The Eye of the Ventriloquist

At the age of 17 Paul Chatenoud interrupted his studies and joined a shipping company in Casablanca. It wasn t until he was 24 that he sat his baccalauréat and embarked on a course in philosophy at the Sorbonne, under the auspices of Jankelevitch, while continuing to hold down various student jobs.

Two years later he became sales director of a French company which was looking for an opening in the British market. In London he discovered Covent Garden and a number of rare opera recordings. On returning to Paris he took up singing lessons in a school of music and learnt German and Italian in order to understand the libretti.

A passionate lover of music and literature, an obstinate dreamer who is determined to pursue his goals, he created the first music bookshop in Paris. Championed by Jankélevitch and held as a veritable miracle by Alain Resnais, this little shop near Notre-Dame was to become a convivial haunt where friends could meet: people such as François Régis Bastide, Arthur Rubinstein, Jean Lacouture, and many others…