In 1994 Fifi and Rodolfo met whilst playing in Lucas Amor’s world music band La Vie en Rose. It was love at first sight. Fifi worked mainly as a cabaret singer with David de Most, an Australian piano player with whom she had travelled all around Australia, Britain and Europe. His growing health problems were inhibiting their career and gradually Fifi and Rodolfo started building a cabaret theatre programme. Rodolfo is first and foremost a classical pianist, with a broad knowledge of gypsy music. He also worked as repetitor with several dance companies and at the Kleinkunst Academie. As an accompanist for singers he has a fine feel for timing and key-change.

 

Their show together combined Fifi’s drama and comedy with a more European repertoire, making a rich and original duo. Both enjoy improvising and shows can vary enormously.

 

They started playing small venues in Holland, festivals, parties and the annual English Panto. They played a season in Berlin and travelled frequently in France, building up a loyal circuit of cafés and house concerts. At the 1997 Oeral Festival in Terschelling (NL) Rodolfo picked up an accordion as a joke but soon mastered it and has become a consummate player. This enabled them to develop an ambulant show which generated a lot of work in all those situations where there are no pianos (corporate events, parades, ships, parties). In 1999 they moved to Australia for a year and travelled extensively, receiving great reviews. They played in Melbourne Concert Hall and at the Millenium Bug Show for New Years Eve on Sydney Harbour, School of Arts Canberra, Lismore Conservatorium and Byron Bay Arts Factory. In 2000 they returned for SAIL AMSTERDAM and after their gig on a 3-master ship were playing at a venue on the Zeedijk. Here they met Hans Wolfenbuttel who was inspired to open a theatre-restaurant “Het Paleis van de Weemoed” for them which starred Fifi and Rodolfo for one and a half years. They also began to work in Wim Peter’s newly opened Variété Restaurant, “Casablanca” where they still perform weekly. They launched their first CD at Arti et Amicitae. They befriended Ramses Shaffy and have had the pleasure of taking him to shows and salons where he improvises marvellously. They have toured frequently for shows in London, Athens, Hannover, Hamburg, Budapest, Marbella (with Xaviera Hollander) and very frequently in France (from Paris to small villages). They sailed with The Ship of Fools to Finland and Sweden. They have built up an enormous repertoire of songs and continue to bring pleasure to all kinds of people with their music and joy.

 

FIFI BEFORE RODOLFO

Fifi began working with dance companies in the mid seventies. One Extra, Mike Mullins Theatre and Sideshow-which was a break-away from the Lindsay Kemp Company. She studied dance and Commedia del Arte before her first husband, pianist Martin Raphael discovered she could sing! She is first and foremost, however, an actress and always delivers songs theatrically. Moving into cabaret (she was co-founder of Cabaret Conspiracy) she developed solo acts. In 1981 she teamed up with Melbourne pianist David de Most and they developed what they called Goldrush Cabaret- combining the roughness and daring of the goldrush days with the burlesque and satire of the Berlin cabaret in the ‘30s. They toured their cabaret for 5 years all around Australia in every situation from outback Aboriginal camps to sophisticated city nightclubs. In 1986 they moved to London playing pubs, theatres and British Arts festivals. They gained German and Dutch agents and began their forays into Europe. They played with Nina Hagen at the Tempodrome, they toured the East Bloc before the wall came down, they headlined a festival on the Costa Brava, they played in Italian ski resorts and enjoyed a 3 month season on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn. They appeared on Dutch tv: Vara’s Nacht Show, RTL4’s Berg and Luxor Cabaret Marathon. They were supporting act for John Cooper Clark, Flying Pickets and Xaviera Hollander. David’s health began declining in the mid ‘90s and he died in 1998.

 

RODOLFO BEFORE FIFI

Rodolfo Ravissant began playing piano aged six. He attended the High school of Music, Sweelink and Hilversum Conservatoria (studying under Fania Chapiro and Tristan Keuris with improvisation courses from Hugo van Neck); he attended summer courses each year in Lublin, Poland and he studied in Debrecen, Hungary. He became fascinated with gypsy music and researched many of the traditional melodies and the manner of playing. From Gregor Serban he learnt a huge body of work which they played throughout Holland for several years before Serban’s death. He has played with many Romany musicians since. This has now expanded to other branches of world music and he has played and recorded with an Indian fusion group, an Iranian band and a Turkish ensemble. He plays occasional classical recitals (Holland, France, Budapest, Australia, Lithuania and Poland). He works as repetitor with many dance companies and has accompanied a range of singers. He learnt accordion and has an enormous bank of songs from all over Europe- he plays on boat cruises, parties and corporate events. He is also a fine graphics designer and a good film maker.