Denise Duval

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Denise Duval (born October 23, 1921 in Paris , † January 25, 2016 in Bex , Canton of Vaud , Switzerland ) was a French opera singer ( soprano ).

Life

Training and beginnings

Duval was born in Paris in 1921. Her father was an officer . She grew up in Indochina , Senegal and the Republic of China ; her family eventually settled in Bordeaux . She studied singing and acting at the Bordeaux Conservatory. The director of the conservatory had heard Duval with a song by Jeanette MacDonald and immediately recorded her. She made her professional stage debut in 1943 at the Bordeaux Opera House as Lola in Cavalleria rusticana . She stayed there for the next two years, later taking on the role of Santuzza there, but sang mainly the lyrical French repertoire in Bordeaux: Marguerite in Faust , Micaela in Carmen , Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande and the female title role in Thaïs . In the Italian subject she took on Mimì in La Bohème , Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly and even Tosca at the side of André Pernet in Bordeaux .

In 1945, according to other sources as early as 1944, Duval traveled to Paris to audition at the Grand Opéra . However, she finally received a one-year contract for the Folies Bergère , where she sang the butterfly aria "Un bel dì vedremo" and a song by Frédéric Chopin in addition to entertainment songs. In 1947 she made her debut at the Grand Opéra as Salomé in Hérodiade by Jules Massenet . In the same year she made her debut at the Paris Opéra-Comique with the title role in Madame Butterfly .

Poulenc interpreter

Duval's name as an opera singer is closely linked to the operatic works of the French composer Francis Poulenc . Her appearance at the Opéra-Comique in 1947 marked the turning point in her operatic career. Poulenc, looking for a suitable soprano for his new opera, heard Duval and hired her to play the role of Thérèse for the premiere in his comical-satirical opera Les mamelles de Tirésias in June 1947. In the following years, between Poulenc and Duval an artistic and personal friendship. Duval was considered Poulenc's inspiration and muse . She sang the role of Thérèse in 1953 in New York City when it was first performed in the United States.

In June 1957 she sang the role of Blanche in Poulenc's opera Dialogues des Carmélites at the French premiere at the Grand Opéra, which was specially composed for her by Poulenc . In February 1959 she sang at the Opéra-Comique in the world premiere of Poulenc's monodrama La voix humaine . The role that Poulenc had composed especially for her was one of Duval's greatest successes. She also sang this role at La Scala in Milan, at the Edinburgh Festival , at the Glyndebourne Festival (both 1960) and at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence . Together with Les mamelles de Tirésias she sang La voix humaine in 1960 with the American Opera Society at Carnegie Hall .

Appearances in France / guest performances

From then on, Duval had great success at both the Grand Opéra and the Opéra-Comique. In June 1949 she sang the role of Francesca in the posthumously premiered opera Le Oui des Jeunes Filles by Reynaldo Hahn at the Opéra-Comique . In November 1952 there followed the title role in the world premiere of the opera Dolorès by Michél-Maurice Lévy .

She made several guest appearances at the Monte Carlo Opera House : in 1950 in the title role of Thaïs , in 1952 as Fata Morgana in Die Liebe zu den Drei Orangen and as Concepción in L'Heure espagnole , in 1953 as Musetta in La Bohème and most recently in 1961 in Das Medium .

She sang at La Scala in Milan (1953 in Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher ), at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1953 in Les Indes galantes ; 1955 as Concepción), in London (1953 in the Wigmore Hall ), at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels , at the Liege Opera House and in Amsterdam . In the 1959/60 season she sang at the Cologne Opera; she worked there in November 1959 in the world premiere of the opera The Death of Grigory Rasputin by Nikolas Nabokov . She later gave further guest appearances at the Glyndebourne Festival (1962 and 1963 as Mélisande) and at the Festival in Aix-en-Provence (1962 in Les Malheurs d'Orphée by Darius Milhaud ).

In 1951 she made her North American debut with the American Opera Society in New York City. In 1960, 1964 and 1965 she appeared at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires , most recently as Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites . In 1961 she sang the title role in Thaïs at the Dallas Civic Opera in a production by Franco Zeffirelli .

End of career and late years

Poulenc's death in January 1963 marked a major turning point in Duval's career; she never quite overcame his death. In 1964 she sang at Radio Suisse Romande in Faits divers by Julien-François Zbinden . Her last appearances were in 1965 at the Teatro Colón, where she collapsed after an overdose of cortisone . She then ended her career completely for health reasons. After the treatments to restore her voice failed, she withdrew to Switzerland. After a long period of health recovery, she taught as a singing teacher at the École Française de Musique in Paris. Occasionally she also directed operas. In 1970 she took part in a film adaptation of La voix humaine (director: Dominique Delouche ); Duval played her role lip-synchronic to an earlier complete recording of the work, in which she had sung the role. In 1998, at the age of 77, she was seen in a documentary by Dominique Delouche teaching a master class. In 2009 she gave another interview.

Duval died in January 2016 at the age of 94 in her adopted home Switzerland.

Repertoire and audio documents

Duval sang an extensive stage repertoire, the focus of which was on classical French opera literature. In addition to Poulenc, Duval also interpreted several other works of contemporary music. Her other stage roles included Giulietta in Hoffmanns Erzählungen , Rosenn in Le roi d'Ys by Édouard Lalo and Portia in Le Marchand de Venise by Reynaldo Hahn.

1952 and 1953 Duval's first opera and recordings were made for EMI : Concepción in L'Heure Espagnole and Thérèse in Les mamelles de Tirésias . In 1957 she took on the role of Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites for EMI ; their interpretation is still unmatched today. In 1963 a radio recording from Glyndebourne appeared, in which she sang Mélisande. In 1963 VOX released a recording of La voix humaine with Georges Prêtre as conductor.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j French soprano Denise Duval, 94, Muse to Poulenc, Has Died Obituary; Opera News of January 26, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Denise Duval, soprano - obituary: Soprano and muse of Francis Poulenc who went from the Folies Bergère to the operatic stage ; Obituary in The Daily Telegraph, January 27, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Duval, Denise
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 2016
Place of death Bex , Canton of Vaud , Switzerland