Caroline "Bokken" Lasson (7 January 1871 – 3 August 1970) was a Norwegian concert and cabaret

Cabaret

Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 singer. She is known for starting the Oslo cabaret Chat Noir

Chat Noir

Chat Noir is a cabaret and revue theatre in Oslo, Norway. It was established in 1912 by Bokken Lasson. The current director is Tom Sterri.-Establishment:...

 in 1912, and also for introducing the children's song "Tuppen og Lillemor" to the Norwegian public.

Early and personal life

Caroline Lasson was born in Christiania

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 as the daughter of lawyer Christian Otto Carl Lasson and Alexandra Cathrine Henriette von Munthe af Morgenstierne. She was a granddaughter of lawyer and politician Peder Carl Lasson

Peder Carl Lasson

Peder Carl Lasson was a Norwegian jurist and politician.He was born in rural Bærum. He began a career in law, being appointed Supreme Court judge in 1828, Supreme Court assessor in 1837 and district stipendiary magistrate of Aker in 1848...

, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Norway

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Norway

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Norway is the judicial leader of the Supreme Court of Norway.The following is a chronological list of chief justices since the court was established:...

. She was a sister of composer Per Lasson

Per Lasson

Per Lasson was a Norwegian composer, brother of painter Oda Krohg.- External links :...

 and painter Oda Krohg

Oda Krohg

Oda Krohg, born Othilia Pauline Christine Lasson , was a Norwegian painter, and the wife of her teacher and colleague Christian Krohg....

, and sister-in-law of the painters Christian Krohg

Christian Krohg

Christian Krohg , was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist.-Life and career:...

 and Frits Thaulow

Frits Thaulow

Frits Thaulow was a Norwegian impressionist painter, best known for his naturalistic depictions of landscape.-Biography:...

. She had a close relation to the Danish writer Holger Drachmann

Holger Drachmann

Holger Henrik Herholdt Drachmann , was a Danish poet and dramatist. He is an outstanding figure of the Modern Break-Through....

, who later married her sister. She was married to Russian writer Michael Semionovitsch Feofanoff from 1904 to 1916, and to barrister and song writer Vilhelm Dybwad

Vilhelm Dybwad

Vilhelm Dybwad was a Norwegian barrister and writer. He wrote comedies, revues and songs. In his later years he wrote several memoir books from his life as a lawyer. Dybwad was born in Christiania as the son of bookseller Jacob Dybwad and Anne Margrethe Grøntvedt Aabel. He was married to actress...

 from 1916. She died in Oslo in 1970, 99 years old.

Career

Lasson took song lessons with Eva Nansen

Eva Nansen

Eva Helene Nansen was a celebrated Norwegian mezzosoprano singer. She was also a pioneer of women's skiing.-Personal life:...

, and later song education in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. She made her concert debut in 1894, at Brødrene Hals' concert house in Kristiania. She started touring in 1895, visiting many European cities, singing while accompanying herself playing lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

. She advanced from street singer to performing at cabarets and restaurants, and occasionally in musical comedies and plays, including performances at the Königliche Hoftheater in Stuttgart

Staatstheater Stuttgart

The Staatstheater Stuttgart ' is an opera house in Stuttgart, Germany. It is also known locally as the Grosses Haus, having been the larger of two theatres of the former Königliche Hoftheater....

. After several years of touring she settled in Kristiania, where she had singing roles at musical comedies at Centraltheatret and Fahlstrøms Teater. In 1912, together with her later husband Vilhelm Dybwad, Lasson started the cabaret Chat Noir

Chat Noir

Chat Noir is a cabaret and revue theatre in Oslo, Norway. It was established in 1912 by Bokken Lasson. The current director is Tom Sterri.-Establishment:...

 in Oslo, modelled after the Paris cabaret Le Chat Noir

Le Chat Noir

Le Chat Noir was a 19th-century cabaret, meaning entertainment house, in the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris...

. Vilhelm Dybwad wrote songs for the cabaret, and Per Krohg

Per Krohg

Per Lasson Krohg was a Norwegian artist. Per Krohg is most frequently associated with the mural he created for the United Nations Security Council Chamber, located in the United Nations building in New York City.-Biography:...

 made the first stage decorations. To start with, Chat Noir was a literary cabaret, and among its contributiors were the poets Herman Wildenvey

Herman Wildenvey

Herman Wildenvey , born Herman Theodor Portaas, was one of the most prominent Norwegian poets of the twentieth century. During his lifetime he published 44 books of his own poetry, in addition to translations of William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, and Heinrich Heine.- Biography :Wildenvey was...

 and Arnulf Øverland

Arnulf Øverland

Ole Peter Arnulf Øverland was a Norwegian author born in Kristiansund and raised in Bergen. His works include Berget det blå and Hustavler .-Life:...

. Bokken Lasson chaired the Chat Noir until 1917, and the cabaret has lasted until today, almost hundred years. She made her first song recording in 1912, the songs "Tuppen og Lillemor" and "Det lille Vandspand". The 1912 recording of "Tuppen og Lillemor" is also found on the 1983 album Chat Noir og norsk revyhistorie. In the late 1920s she started the Cabaret Intime, where she performed herself, along with other musicians such as Kirsten Flagstad

Kirsten Flagstad

Kirsten Målfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano...

, Maja Flagstad, Cally Monrad

Cally Monrad

Cally Monrad was a Norwegian singer, actress and poet. She was particularly known as a concert and opera singer. She was a member of the Nazi party Nasjonal Samling, and theatre director at Det Norske Teatret from 1942 to 1945, during the German occupation of Norway. She was sentenced to one year...

 and Lalla Carlsen

Lalla Carlsen

Lalla Carlsen was a Norwegian singer and actress, and is regarded as one of the most legendary female revue artists in Norway.-Personal life:...

. Bokken Lasson was interested in antroposophy, educated at the Steiner school, was an active song educator, and continued her song career by giving concerts and being guest artist in musical comedies. She has published song books and autobiographical books.

In 1962 a bronze statue of her was revealed in Homansbyen

Homansbyen

Homansbyen is a neighborhood in Frogner borough in Oslo, Norway. The area is named for the lawyer brothers Jacob and Henrik Homan .-Area:...

 in Oslo, sculpured by Joseph Grimeland.

Select bibliography

• 67 viser fra det gamle Chat Noir, 1920
• Østens smil og tårer, 1931
• Slik var det dengang, 1938
• Livet og lykken, 1940
• Bokken Lassons jubileumsalbum, 1947

Selected recordings

• "Tuppen og Lillemor" (1912)
• "Det lille Vandspand" (1912)
• "Maisangen" (1912)
• "Sorte øine" (1912)
• "Dukkerne" (1913)
• "O du søde glade jul" (1913)
• "Pierrot henter månen" (1913)
• "Hvor meget må man tjene" (1957)
• "Våren i Kristiania" (1957)