Gérard Souzay
Encyclopedia
Gérard Souzay was a French baritone
singer, regarded as one of the very finest interpreters of mélodie
(French art song) in the generation after Charles Panzéra
and Pierre Bernac
.
, France. His parents had met at one of the first performances of Pelléas et Mélisande
in 1902; his mother and two brothers were singers, and his sister, 15 years older, was the soprano Geneviève Touraine, who gave the first performance of Poulenc
's Fiançailles pour rire in 1942. After his schooling at the Collège Rabelais in Chinon
, he went to the Sorbonne
in Paris to study philosophy, and while there he met the singer Pierre Bernac
, who encouraged him to study singing.
Souzay entered the Paris Conservatoire
in 1940, studying with Claire Croiza
and Jean-Emil Vanni-Marcoux. He actually began singing as a tenor, but in 1943, with advice from the leading operatic singer Henri Etcheverry, he became a baritone. He graduated from the Conservatoire in 1945 with two first prizes, the Prix de chant and the Prix de vocalise. While at the Conservatoire, he also tried his hand at composition and in 1942 three of his settings of poems by Paul Valéry
were given a performance by Pierre Bernac. He went on to study voice with Bernac, although he subsequently expressed some differences with the latter's methods and ideas on pronunciation. He was eager not to limit himself to being a specialist in the French repertoire, and he made a detailed study of German lied
er with Lotte Lehmann
.
's Requiem in a centenary tribute to the composer at the Royal Albert Hall
in London. He rapidly established an international career as a recitalist, admired not only in French music but also for his command of the German repertoire, especially Schubert
and Schumann
. In recital, his first accompanist was Jacqueline Bonneau (who had been his contemporary at the Paris Conservatoire), but she was reluctant to travel and from 1954 onwards he formed a close partnership with the American pianist Dalton Baldwin
which continued for the rest of his career.
Souzay's exceptional linguistic gifts enabled him to sing convincingly in 13 different languages including Hebrew, Portuguese and Russian. In contemporary music he performed in Honegger
's La danse des morts and in the world première of Stravinsky
's Canticum sacrum. The composer Jacques Leguerney
(1906–1997) wrote many songs for Souzay and for his sister. Souzay also sang Jocelyne Binet
's Cycle de Mélodies on seven poems by Paul Éluard
in a 1955 recital program.
His operatic career began in 1947 in Cimarosa
's Il matrimonio segreto
at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
, but it was not until the late 1950s that he extended his stage work – though even then it did not take precedence over his recitals. His roles included Monteverdi
's Orfeo, Mozart
's Don Giovanni and Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro
, Lescaut in Massenet
's Manon
, and Méphistophélès in Berlioz
's La Damnation de Faust
. One of his favorite and most successful roles was Golaud in Debussy
's Pelléas et Mélisande
.
He did little operatic work after the 1960s, but continued his recital career, finally retiring from performance in the late 1980s. He spent the last years of his life giving master classes in the United States, Europe and Japan: he was an inspiring teacher, preferring to work on phrasing and the mood of a song rather than French diction.
He was a keen abstract painter, and in 1983 he published a book Sur mon chemin: pensées et dessins in which a selection of his paintings was accompanied by his written commentary, on art and life. He died at his home in Antibes
in the south of France on 17 August 2004.
and Geneviève Touraine; (these were almost his only recorded duets, apart from some later ones with Elly Ameling
). He made other recordings in the 1940s for the small French company Boîte à Musique, and then signed a contract with English Decca. He subsequently recorded for Philips and EMI
. A discography of his recordings has been published, listing over 750 titles He participated in complete recordings of the songs of Fauré and Poulenc. On three occasions he won the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque, including one for his recording of the songs of Ravel.
Later in his career, he sought to disown his early recordings and to veto the radio from broadcasting them, preferring his later versions of some of the same works. Much to the relief of admirers of the smooth and beautiful quality of his younger voice, he was not widely heeded, and many of his early recordings have been re-released to considerable acclaim.
for the title of the greatest lyrical baritone of his age." The New York Times described his voice as "not huge, but rich in color and tone, supple and sensual and lovely." Souzay was "a sensualist, reacting viscerally to the music and allowing it to carry him in new directions in a given concert." The Guardian judged that "the basis of his popularity in recital lay in his easily produced, vibrant, warm baritone. It was used by its owner with an innate sensibility and an unfaltering sense of style. His attractive art was founded, above all, on a very French approach, at once balanced and urbane, yet inwardly poetic."
In the 1950s, Souzay's style of singing became the object of some unexpected criticism when it was cited by Roland Barthes
in one of his essays in Mythologies, "L'art vocal bourgeois". Referring to a recording of Fauré songs, Barthes complained that Souzay invested particular words with superfluous emotion by means of an exaggerated phonetic dramatisation, and that by imposing his own "signs" of emotion he stifled the meaning of the words and music. Not everyone has agreed with Barthes's description of the style, let alone with the force of his argument, but these are strictures which would attach to many other singers besides Souzay and go to the heart of how vocal performance should be approached. (Indeed some years later, Barthes made similar criticisms against the singing of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.)
Souzay regarded himself as a romantic. Never analytical or detached in his performances, he said: "For me music is limpid and speaks for itself. I can only offer my emotions when I sing".
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
singer, regarded as one of the very finest interpreters of mélodie
Mélodie
Mélodie refers to French art songs of the mid-19th century to the present; it is the French equivalent of the German Lied. It is distinguished from a chanson, which is a folk or popular song.-Nature of the mélodie:...
(French art song) in the generation after Charles Panzéra
Charles Panzéra
Charles [Auguste Louis] Panzéra was a Swiss operatic and concert baritone.-Overview:Panzéra's studies at the Paris Conservatory under the tuition of Amédée-Louis Hettich were interrupted by his volunteering into the French Army during World War I...
and Pierre Bernac
Pierre Bernac
Pierre Bernac was a French baritone.Born Pierre Bertin in Paris on January 12, 1899, he studied with Reinhold von Wahrlich in Salzburg. he came to music relatively late and gave his first recital in 1921....
.
Background and education
He was born Gérard Marcel Tisserand, but later adopted the stage name of Souzay from a village on the river Loire. He came from a musical family in AngersAngers
Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
, France. His parents had met at one of the first performances of Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...
in 1902; his mother and two brothers were singers, and his sister, 15 years older, was the soprano Geneviève Touraine, who gave the first performance of Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
's Fiançailles pour rire in 1942. After his schooling at the Collège Rabelais in Chinon
Chinon
Chinon is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France well known for Château de Chinon.In the Middle Ages, Chinon developed especially during the reign of Henry II . The castle was rebuilt and extended, becoming one of his favorite residences...
, he went to the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in Paris to study philosophy, and while there he met the singer Pierre Bernac
Pierre Bernac
Pierre Bernac was a French baritone.Born Pierre Bertin in Paris on January 12, 1899, he studied with Reinhold von Wahrlich in Salzburg. he came to music relatively late and gave his first recital in 1921....
, who encouraged him to study singing.
Souzay entered the Paris Conservatoire
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...
in 1940, studying with Claire Croiza
Claire Croiza
Claire Croiza was a French mezzo-soprano and an influential teacher of singers.-Career:Claire Croiza was born in Paris, the daughter of an expatriate American father and an Italian mother, and as a child she excelled at piano and singing...
and Jean-Emil Vanni-Marcoux. He actually began singing as a tenor, but in 1943, with advice from the leading operatic singer Henri Etcheverry, he became a baritone. He graduated from the Conservatoire in 1945 with two first prizes, the Prix de chant and the Prix de vocalise. While at the Conservatoire, he also tried his hand at composition and in 1942 three of his settings of poems by Paul Valéry
Paul Valéry
Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. His interests were sufficiently broad that he can be classified as a polymath...
were given a performance by Pierre Bernac. He went on to study voice with Bernac, although he subsequently expressed some differences with the latter's methods and ideas on pronunciation. He was eager not to limit himself to being a specialist in the French repertoire, and he made a detailed study of German lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er with Lotte Lehmann
Lotte Lehmann
Charlotte "Lotte" Lehmann was a German soprano who was especially associated with German repertory. She gave memorable performances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier was considered her greatest...
.
Career
Gérard Souzay's public appearances began in 1945 with recitals and concerts, including a performance of FauréGabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
's Requiem in a centenary tribute to the composer at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in London. He rapidly established an international career as a recitalist, admired not only in French music but also for his command of the German repertoire, especially Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
and Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
. In recital, his first accompanist was Jacqueline Bonneau (who had been his contemporary at the Paris Conservatoire), but she was reluctant to travel and from 1954 onwards he formed a close partnership with the American pianist Dalton Baldwin
Dalton Baldwin
Dalton Baldwin is an American collaborative pianist. He has made over 100 recordings and has won numerous prizes working with Elly Ameling and Gérard Souzay.-External links:*...
which continued for the rest of his career.
Souzay's exceptional linguistic gifts enabled him to sing convincingly in 13 different languages including Hebrew, Portuguese and Russian. In contemporary music he performed in Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
's La danse des morts and in the world première of Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Canticum sacrum. The composer Jacques Leguerney
Jacques Leguerney
Jacques Leguerney was a French composer especially noted for his art songs.-Biography:Jacques Leguerney has been referred to as "the latest--perhaps the last--great exponent of the mélodie"....
(1906–1997) wrote many songs for Souzay and for his sister. Souzay also sang Jocelyne Binet
Jocelyne Binet
Jocelyne Binet was a Canadian composer, pianist, and music educator. She studied in Montreal and Paris, France, and returned to compose and teach music in Canada.-Biography:...
's Cycle de Mélodies on seven poems by Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
in a 1955 recital program.
His operatic career began in 1947 in Cimarosa
Domenico Cimarosa
Domenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school...
's Il matrimonio segreto
Il matrimonio segreto
Il matrimonio segreto is an opera in two acts, music by Domenico Cimarosa, on a libretto by Giovanni Bertati, based on the play The Clandestine Marriage by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick...
at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence Festival
The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...
, but it was not until the late 1950s that he extended his stage work – though even then it did not take precedence over his recitals. His roles included Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
's Orfeo, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Don Giovanni and Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, Lescaut in Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, and Méphistophélès in Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
's La Damnation de Faust
The Damnation of Faust
La damnation de Faust , Op. 24 is a work for four solo voices, full seven-part chorus, large children's chorus and orchestra by the French composer Hector Berlioz. He called it a "légende dramatique"...
. One of his favorite and most successful roles was Golaud in Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...
.
He did little operatic work after the 1960s, but continued his recital career, finally retiring from performance in the late 1980s. He spent the last years of his life giving master classes in the United States, Europe and Japan: he was an inspiring teacher, preferring to work on phrasing and the mood of a song rather than French diction.
He was a keen abstract painter, and in 1983 he published a book Sur mon chemin: pensées et dessins in which a selection of his paintings was accompanied by his written commentary, on art and life. He died at his home in Antibes
Antibes
Antibes is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.It lies on the Mediterranean in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is within the commune of Antibes...
in the south of France on 17 August 2004.
Recordings
Gérard Souzay's first recordings were made in 1944 with the sopranos Germaine LubinGermaine Lubin
Germaine Lubin was a French dramatic soprano best known for her association with the music of Richard Wagner...
and Geneviève Touraine; (these were almost his only recorded duets, apart from some later ones with Elly Ameling
Elly Ameling
Elisabeth Sara "Elly" Ameling is a Dutch soprano.-Career:Ameling was born in Rotterdam. She studied with Bodi Rapp, Jo Bollekamp, Sem Dresden and Jacoba Dresden-Dhont and later French art song with Pierre Bernac...
). He made other recordings in the 1940s for the small French company Boîte à Musique, and then signed a contract with English Decca. He subsequently recorded for Philips and EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
. A discography of his recordings has been published, listing over 750 titles He participated in complete recordings of the songs of Fauré and Poulenc. On three occasions he won the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque, including one for his recording of the songs of Ravel.
Later in his career, he sought to disown his early recordings and to veto the radio from broadcasting them, preferring his later versions of some of the same works. Much to the relief of admirers of the smooth and beautiful quality of his younger voice, he was not widely heeded, and many of his early recordings have been re-released to considerable acclaim.
Reputation
While critics agree the size of the voice was often found wanting, Souzay's musicianship, perfect diction, sense of style (particularly of the French chanson) and detailed interpretation were never questioned, and found a perfect niche on the recital platform. When Gérard Souzay died he had only been a connoisseur's delight, being somewhat forgotten by audiences and younger singers. On the other hand the obituary notices were quick in recognising the importance of his contribution to 20th century singing. The Daily Telegraph said that he "rivalled Dietrich Fischer-DieskauDietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"...
for the title of the greatest lyrical baritone of his age." The New York Times described his voice as "not huge, but rich in color and tone, supple and sensual and lovely." Souzay was "a sensualist, reacting viscerally to the music and allowing it to carry him in new directions in a given concert." The Guardian judged that "the basis of his popularity in recital lay in his easily produced, vibrant, warm baritone. It was used by its owner with an innate sensibility and an unfaltering sense of style. His attractive art was founded, above all, on a very French approach, at once balanced and urbane, yet inwardly poetic."
In the 1950s, Souzay's style of singing became the object of some unexpected criticism when it was cited by Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
in one of his essays in Mythologies, "L'art vocal bourgeois". Referring to a recording of Fauré songs, Barthes complained that Souzay invested particular words with superfluous emotion by means of an exaggerated phonetic dramatisation, and that by imposing his own "signs" of emotion he stifled the meaning of the words and music. Not everyone has agreed with Barthes's description of the style, let alone with the force of his argument, but these are strictures which would attach to many other singers besides Souzay and go to the heart of how vocal performance should be approached. (Indeed some years later, Barthes made similar criticisms against the singing of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.)
Souzay regarded himself as a romantic. Never analytical or detached in his performances, he said: "For me music is limpid and speaks for itself. I can only offer my emotions when I sing".
Further reading
- J.B. SteaneJ.B. SteaneJohn Barry Steane was an English music critic, musicologist, literary scholar and teacher, with a particular interest in singing and the human voice...
. The Grand Tradition. (London, Duckworth,1974), pp.487–90. - A. Blyth, ed. Song on Record 2. (Cambridge University Press, 1988).
External links
- http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Souzay-Gerard.htm A short biography with some photographs.