Our 3rd Ode to Lotta song is a setting of Victor Hugo’s humorous love song, “La coccinelle.” A 16-year-old boy removes a ladybug from a girl’s neck – causing a kiss to fly off forever! This song has been included in Ode to Lotta for 2 reasons.

(1) From her studies at the Sorbonne, Lotta Hitschmanova became well-versed in Hugo’s poetry, and thus a trilogy of Victor Hugo songs has been featured in Ode to Lotta.

(2) And despite the personal tragedies Lotta and her family had experienced, and the heavy load that Lotta carried as she bore witness to heart-wrenching scenes around the world during her later professional life, Lotta was known to have had a great sense of humour.

Indeed, she would often tell jokes about her famous uniform that she wore everywhere, overseas and in Canada. Here are a few examples of incidents that Lotta loved to talk about:

• The RCAF veteran who congratulated her on still being in the air force;
• the waitress in Winnipeg who wanted her to baby-sit when she had explained that her agency looked after children;
• the guest in a Korean hotel who exclaimed “Telegrams!” on seeing her in the elevator; and
• the Japanese tourist who tried to buy a bus ticket from her to Niagara Falls.

“La coccinelle” will receive its world premiere by the Vancouver Chamber Choir led by Kari Turunen on Nov 28.

Stay tuned for the next instalment on the Road to #OdeToLotta…..

And for tickets to the Nov 28 Ode to Lotta concert in Vancouver, click here.