Every so often, we like to present historical bari-hunks to our readers. French bass-baritone Gérard Souzay is a singer who generates some controversy among lieder afficionados. He was criticized for having a smallish voice and for creating emotion through exaggerated phonetic dramatization, which critics maintained stifled the true meaning of the words and music. However, history has served him well, and he in now remembered fondly for his excellent musicianship, perfect diction, sense of style (particularly in French) and detailed interpretations. We're huge fans and have featured him regularly on the site.
Gérard Souzay was born on December 8, 1918 as Gérard Marcel Tisserand to a musical family in Angers, France. In college, he concentrated on Philosophy, which he continued to read widely after making his career as a singer. After graduating, he went to Paris to pursue philosophy, and to study voice with Pierre Bernac, Claire Croiza, Vanni Marcoux and Lotte Lehmann. Later, he entered the Paris Conservatoire (1940-1945), where he was a prize-winning student.
Gérard Souzay sings Fauré mélodies:
Gérard Souzay made his professional debut in 1944, his New York debut in 1950, and his opera stage debut at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence in 1958, where he sang roles in Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio Segreto and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Since then, his operatic career developed parallel to his career as a recitalist and concert singer and specialist in little-known repertoire. In 1960, Leopold Stokowski invited Souzay to interpret the role of Orfeo in Monteverdi's Favola d'Orfeo at the New York City Center Opera. In 1962, Ernest Ansermet invited him to play Golaud in Debussy's Pellèas et Mèlisande at the Rome Opera. Souzay also sang Golaud at the Paris Opéra Comique in the same year, in a performance celebrating the centenary of Debussy's birth. In 1963, at the Paris Opéra, he sang Don Giovanni for the first time. In 1965, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro; he also made his debuts that year at the Vienna State Opera and the Munich Opera. Known for his phenomenal gift for languages and dialects, Souzay was also greatly respected for his master classes.
Gérard Souzay sings Ravel:
In a distinguished 43-year recording career that began with the recording of two duets by Blangini and Leguerney in 1944, Gérard Souzay, a remarkably versatile artist, recorded more than 750 titles in at least 15 languages. These recordings, appearing on nearly 50 labels (more than 535 different catalog numbers) on 78s, 45s, LP’s, prerecorded open reel tapes, 8-track cartridges, cassettes, and CD’s, earned Souzay numerous awards. Souzay won the prestigious French Grand Prix du Disque on three separate occasions for performances of a George Frideric Handel aria, Ravel songs, and classical arias with orchestra. Except for operas and cantatas, Souzay rarely recorded joint programs: his only recorded duets were with his sister, soprano Genevieve Touraine, Germaine Lubin, and Elly Ameling.
He died August 17, 2004.
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Today is the birthday of the great composer César Franck and another great excuse to post Gerard Souzay, one of our favorite lieder singers of all-time.
César Franck (December 10, 1822 – November 8, 1890) was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life. He was born at Liège, in what is now Belgium (though at the time of his birth it was under the Dutch control).
Many of Franck's works employ "cyclic form", a method of achieving unity among several movements in which all of the principal themes of the work are generated from a germinal motif. The main melodic subjects, thus interrelated, are then recapitulated in the final movement. Franck's use of "cyclic form" is best illustrated by his Symphony in D minor (1888).
Gerard Souzay sings Nocturne:
His music is often contrapuntally complex, using a harmonic language that is prototypically late Romantic, showing a great deal of influence from Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. In his compositions, Franck showed a talent and a penchant for frequent, graceful modulations of key. Often these modulatory sequences, achieved through a pivot chord or through inflection of a melodic phrase, arrive at harmonically remote keys. Indeed, Franck's students report that his most frequent admonition was to always "modulate, modulate." Franck's modulatory style and his idiomatic method of inflecting melodic phrases are among his most recognizable traits.
King's College Choir sings Panis Angelicus:
Unusually for a composer of such importance and reputation, Franck's fame rests largely on a small number of compositions written in his later years, particularly his Symphony in D minor (1886–88), the Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra (1885), the Prelude, Chorale and Fugue for piano solo (1884), the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major (1886), the Piano Quintet in F minor (1879), and the symphonic poem Le Chasseur maudit (1883). The Symphony was especially admired and influential among the younger generation of French composers and was highly responsible for reinvigorating the French symphonic tradition after years of decline. One of his best known shorter works is the motet setting Panis Angelicus, which was originally written for tenor solo with organ and string accompaniment, but is also arranged for other voices and instrumental combinations.
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What could we possibly say about Mozart that either hasn't been said or you don't know already? Born on January 27, 1756, he was a child prodigy, who wrote his first symphony when he was eight years old and his first opera at age twelve. He went on to write some of the most important masterpieces of the Classical era, including symphonies, operas, string quartets and piano music. Of course, he has been an endless source of material for Barihunks, especially his operas Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte, which provide us with an ongoing stream of sexy low voices.
We think the best way to celebrate his birthday is with some music from our favorite singers:
Erwin Schrott sings "Madamina" from Don Giovanni:
Markus Werba sings "Hai già vinta la cuasa" from "Marriage of Figaro":
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo & Ruxandra Donose sing "Il core vi dono" from Cosi fan tutte:
Gérard Souzay sings "Deh vieni alla finestra"from Don Giovanni:
Simon Keenlyside sings "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" from the Magic Flute:
We just had to share emerging barihunk Xavier Edgardo, who is simply adorable. The 22-year-old singer has been studying at the University of Puerto Rico, where he also sang in the choir. He honed his solo skills for two seasons at the International Vocal Arts Institute run by the esteemed Joan Dorneman, assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera.
Edgardo has participated in and won a number of vocal competitions, include many in Europe. In 2009, he was asked to participate in the prestigious Pablo Casals Festival. He has participated in masterclasses with a number of great singers, including fellow Puerto Rican Justino Diaz, Denis Sedov, Sherril Milnes, Mignon Dunn and Elaine Ortiz Arandes. He is currently a member of the Opera of Puerto Rico chorus. We plan of following the solo career of this young talent in future seasons.
Gerard Souzay: A Barihunks favorite
If you haven't heard Tom Huizenga's analysis and breakdown of the baritone voice, we recommend that you click HERE and listen to it. The article includes sound clips, including one of Gerard Souzay's beautiful rendition of Faure's "Clair de lune."
John Relyea reprising Attila in Seattle
We want to remind readers that Canadian barihunk John Relyea is returning to the Seattle Opera in the role of Attila on January 14th. This should be a huge hit and is a "must see" opera for any Verdi fan. Visit the Seattle Opera website for additional cast information and performance dates. Attila also contains two great baritone parts, including a baritone duet! We covered Relyea when he recently sang the role in a concert format this fall in Washington, D.C. Click HERE to see our previous post.
John Relyea sings Publio's "Tardi S'Avvede" from Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito:
Relyea’s previous Seattle Opera credits include the title roles in Don Quichotte and Bluebeard’s Castle, and Giorgio in I puritani. He won the 2005 Seattle Opera Artist of the Year award for his Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann.
You can watch Attila in its entirety on YouTube by clicking HERE. The cast includes barihunk Samuel Ramey, Giorgio Zancanaro and soprano Cheryl Studer.
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Bastille Day got us thinking about French music and it prompted some great emails. One suggested that we explore Pelléas, which has had some great barihunk exponents. The reader’s email was prompted by his memories of seeing Fracois Le Roux in the role and thinking that he had to be the greatest Pelleas ever. When he told his voice teacher, the elderly man said, “I would agree, except that there was Jacques Toupin and the role sounded like it was written for him.”
Of the people involved with this site, only one of us had ever heard of him, but after hearing him sing, we can understand the voice teacher’s point.
Jacques Jansen was born in Paris in 1913 and died there in 2002. He became associated with the role of Pelléas like no other singer in history, as his light, high-baritone was perfectly suited for the role. He spent thirty years performing the role around the world and critics marveled at his crystal clear enunciation of the text.
He also made quite a mark in operetta, singing Eisenstein in “Die Fledermaus,” Duparquet in Reynaldo Hahn's “Ciboulette,” and Count Danilo in Léhar's “The Merry Widow,” which he performed nearly 1,500 times. His original dream was to be an actor, and during World War II, he was featured in a number of movies, including Sacha Guitry's “La Malibran.” He dubbed the singing voice of Alain Cuny in Marcel Carné's “Les Visiteurs du soir” and Jean Marais in “Le Lit à colonnes.”
In 1942, he recorded what many consider to be the classic version of Pelléas, sung opposite the Mélisande of Irène Joachim and conducted by Roger Desormière. After World War II, he performed outside of France, including roles in Vienna, Dublin, Amsterdam, London’s Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Milan’s La Scala. After his retirement, Jansen taught voice until his retirement in 1982.
Francois Le Roux as Pelléas in Lyon
Francois Le Roux, who we’ve been featuring in our survey of French music, has been dubbed as the greatest Pelléas of this generation. He has performed the role over a 100 times since his debut in 1985 and recorded the role under the baton of Claudio Abbado. In recent years, he switched to the role of Golaud. We couldn’t find a clip of Le Roux singing Pelléas, so here he is as Golaud under the baton of Georges Prêtre.
Le Roux is considered both one of the leading exponents of French music, as well as one of the foremost experts. In the same way the Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has been an advocate for German music and Thomas Hampson for American music, Le Roux has been in the forefront of promoting French music. He is the author of the book “Le Chant Intime,” which is the seminal work on interpreting French song. He is artistic Director of the "Académie Francis Poulenc in Tours", where young singers learn about the interpretation of French Song. He also organized the "French Song Concert Season of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France" in Paris between 1997 and 2002.
His recording of French music are a must for any serious lover of the artform. He has recorded the complete songs of Faure and Duparc, as well as selections by Saint-Saëns, Séverac and Durey. Many consider him to be the successor the the great Gerard Souzay.
A reader asked if it's true that Francois Le Roux was the first male opera singer to appear completely nude onstage. We believe that to be true. He stripped off his clothes in Birtwistle's "Gawain" and had buckets of blood poured over his body. There is a pirate DVD of the opera if anyone is interested.
Yesterday we featured music by Francis Poulenc who is leading our poll of your favorite French composers. Today we thought we'd feature the three composers at the bottom of the poll. Apparently, early music isn't particularly popular with readers as both Lully and Charpentier at the bottom along with the 19th century composer Ernest Chausson. We hope that these clips will introduce some new music to readers. As we so often do when we feature French music, the first two clips are from our beloved French barihunk Gérard Souzay. If you've never heard Souzay sing Lully's "Je ne puis en votre malheur," you're in for quite a treat.
Gérard Souzay sings Ernest Chausson's "Le Colibri":
Le Colibri (The Hummingbird)
The hummingbird, the green prince of the heights,
feeling the dew and seeing the sun's clear light
shining into his nest of woven grass,
shoots up in the air like a gleaming dart.
Hurriedly he flies to the nearby marsh
where the waves of bamboo rustle and bend,
and the red hibiscus with the heavenly scent
opens to show its moist and glistening heart.
Down to the flower he flies, alights from above,
and from the rosy cup drinks so much love
that he dies, not knowing if he could drink it dry.
Even so, my darling, on your pure lips
my soul and senses would have wished to die
on contact with that first full-fragrant kiss.
Gérard Souzay sings Jean Baptiste Lully's beautiful "Je ne puis en votre malheur" from "Persée":
Here is an excerpt from Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Magnificat" with countertenor Dominique Visse, tenor Michel Laplénie and bass Philippe Cantor:
We couldn't find a good baritone version of Le Marsellaise, so we'll break all of the rules and celebrate Bastille Day with a tenor. Here is the always entertaining Roberto Alagna singing the spirited anthem of France.
What better way to celebrate than with some French barihunks singing French music. Let's start with Gerard Souzay singing Ravel's "Don Quichotte" and Gabriel Fauré's Après un rêve:
François Le Roux
Here is François Le Roux singing Henri Duparc's "Chanson triste" and Charles Gounod 's "Le Soir":
Gérard Souzay is one of our favorite historical hunks, so it seemed fitting that we celebrate the 201st birthday of Robert Schumann with his Dichterliebe. The song cycle, which roughly translates as "The Poet's Love," was written in 1840 and is based on the great poetry of Heinrich Heine. The very natural, almost hyper-sensitive poetical affections of the poems are beautifully mirrored in Schumann's settings, with their miniaturist chromaticism and suspensions. The poet's love is a hothouse of nuanced responses to the delicate language of flowers, dreams and fairy-tales. Schumann adapts the words of the poems to his needs for the songs, sometimes repeating phrases and often rewording a line to supply the desired cadence.
1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (Heine, Lyrical Intermezzo no 1). (In beautiful May, when the buds sprang, love sprang up in my heart: in beautiful May, when the birds all sang, I told you my suffering and longing.)
2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen (Heine no 2). (Many flowers spring up from my tears, and a nightingale choir from my sighs: If you love me, I'll pick them all for you, and the nightingale will sing at your window.)
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (Heine no 3). (I used to love the rose, lily, dove and sun, joyfully: now I love only the little, the fine, the pure, the One: you yourself are the source of them all.)
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (Heine no 4). (When I look in your eyes all my pain and woe fades: when I kiss your mouth I become whole: when I recline on your breast I am filled with heavenly joy: and when you say, 'I love you', I weep bitterly.)
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (Heine no 7). (I want to bathe my soul in the chalice of the lily, and the lily, ringing, will breathe a song of my beloved. The song will tremble and quiver, like the kiss of her mouth which in a wondrous moment she gave me.)
6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (Heine no 11). (In the Rhine, in the sacred stream, great holy Cologne with its great cathedral is reflected. In it there is a face painted on golden leather, which has shone into the confusion of my life. Flowers and cherubs float about Our Lady: the eyes, lips and cheeks are just like those of my beloved.)
7. Ich grolle nicht (Heine no 18). (I do not chide you, though my heart breaks, love ever lost to me! Though you shine in a field of diamonds, no ray falls into your heart's darkness. I have long known it: I saw the night in your heart, I saw the serpent that devours it: I saw, my love, how empty you are.)
8. Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen (Heine no 22). (If the little flowers only knew how deeply my heart is wounded, they would weep with me to heal my suffering, and the nightingales would sing to cheer me, and even the starlets would drop from the sky to speak consolation to me: but they can't know, for only One knows, and it is she that has torn my heart asunder.) 9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen (Heine no 20). (There is a playing of flutes and violins and trumpets, for they are dancing the wedding-dance of my best-beloved. There is a thunder and booming of kettle-drums and shawms. In between, you can hear the good cupids sobbing and moaning.) 10. Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen (Heine no 40). (When I hear that song which my love once sang, my breast bursts with wild affliction. Dark longing drives me to the forest hills, where my too-great woe pours out in tears.) 11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (Heine no 39). (A youth loved a maiden who chose another: the other loved another girl, and married her. The maiden married, from spite, the first and best man that she met with: the youth was sickened at it. It's the old story, and it's always new: and the one whom she turns aside, she breaks his heart in two.) 12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (Heine no 45). (On a sunny summer morning I went out into the garden: the flowers were talking and whispering, but I was silent. They looked at me with pity, and said, 'Don't be cruel to our sister, you sad, death-pale man.')13. 13. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet (Heine no 55). (I wept in my dream, for I dreamt you were in your grave: I woke, and tears ran down my cheeks. I wept in my dreams, thinking you had abandoned me: I woke, and cried long and bitterly. I wept in my dream, dreaming you were still good to me: I woke, and even then my floods of tears poured forth.)
14. Allnächtlich im Traume (Heine no 56). (I see you every night in dreams, and see you greet me friendly, and crying out loudly I throw myself at your sweet feet. You look at me sorrowfully and shake your fair head: from your eyes trickle the pearly tear-drops. You say a gentle word to me and give me a sprig of cypress: I awake, and there is no sprig, and I have forgotten what the word was.)
15. Aus alten Märchen winkt es (Heine no 43). (The old fairy tales tell of a magic land where great flowers shine in the golden evening light, where trees speak and sing like a choir, and springs make music to dance to, and songs of love are sung such as you have never heard, till wondrous sweet longing infatuates you! Oh, could I only go there, and free my heart, and let go of all pain, and be blessed! Ah! I often see that land of joys in dreams: then comes the morning sun, and it vanishes like smoke.)
16. Die alten, bösen Lieder (Heine no 65). (The old bad songs, and the angry, bitter dreams, let us now bury them, bring a large coffin. I shall put very much therein, I shall not yet say what: the coffin must be bigger than the 'Tun' at Heidelberg. And bring a bier of stout, thick planks, they must be longer than the Bridge at Mainz. And bring me too twelve giants, who must be mightier than the Saint Christopher in the cathedral at Cologne. They must carry the coffin and throw it in the sea, because a coffin that large needs a large grave to put it in. Do you know why the coffin must be so big and heavy? I will also put my love and my suffering into it).
As a bonus, here is Souzay singing Widmung. In "Widmung," Schumann confessed all of the things his beloved Clara Wieck (Schumann) was to him; his peace, angel, repose, rapture, heart, soul, grave for sorrows, better self and his heaven. In this carefully balanced arrangement of text and music, he revealed the depth of his engagement as a poet-musician. This spirited song contains a few devices which reappeared in his later works, including sweeping keyboard passages and the haunting enharmonic progression (A flat major to E flat major) to the central section. He altered the text by repeating the final verse, and these last measures contain a thoughtful instrumental effect, which eclipses the text and introduces a new motif.
Also, make sure that you check out our recent post of Austrian barihunk Markus Werba singing Schumann's "Faust."
The great master Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this day in 1685, so Barihunks would like to celebrate with some of our favorite singers performing his music.
Gerard Souzay, Christopher Maltman & Michael Adair
Gerard Souzay sings music from the Bach Magnificat:
Christopher Maltman sings from Cantata BWV 61, BWV 147 and the Magnificat:
Michael Adair sings St. John's Passion (FYI, he uses the monikor Barihunks on Twitter, not us):
In celebration of Ernest Chausson's birthday we thought that you'd enjoy hearing the great Gerard Souzay and current heartthrob and Met Auditions finalist Phillipe Sly offer their versions of the beautiful song Le temps des lilas.
Just for fun, here is countertenor Philippe Jaroussky with his beautiful version of the same song.
