Régine Crespin

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Régine Crespin

Régine Crespin (23 February 1927 – 5 July 2007) was a French singer who had a major international career in opera and on the concert stage between 1950 and 1989. She started her career singing roles in the dramatic soprano and spinto soprano repertoire, drawing particular acclaim singing Wagner and Strauss heroines. She went on to sing a wider repertoire that embraced Italian, French, German, and Russian opera from a variety of musical periods. In the early 1970s Crespin began experiencing vocal difficulties for the first time and ultimately began performing roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire. Throughout her career she was widely admired for the elegance, warmth and subtlety of her singing, especially in the French and German operatic repertories.

Crespin began her career in France, earning her first critical successes in the

Opéra National de Paris in the mid-1950s. Her international career was launched in 1958 with a critically acclaimed performance of Kundry in Richard Wagner's Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival. She soon appeared at most of the major opera houses in the United States and Europe and also made a number of appearances in South America. She had a long and fruitful association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, making over 125 appearances at that house between 1962 and 1987. Crespin retired from the stage in 1989, after which she taught singing for many years at her alma mater, the Conservatoire de Paris, and gave numerous acclaimed master classes
at conservatories and universities internationally.

In recognition of Crespin's artistry as a singer, the Marguerite Long–Jacques Thibaud Competition, which had been restricted to pianists and violinists, was expanded in 2011 to include singers, and renamed the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition.[1]

Early life and education: 1927–1950

Crespin was born in

Opéra National de Paris, but Crespin was for some unknown reason not offered one. This created a somewhat tenuous relationship between Crespin and her country's musical establishment which extended into the early portion of her career.[2]

Early career in France: 1950–1957

Her first professional stage engagement was in Reims in 1949 (Charlotte in Werther) while she was still studying at the Conservatoire.[7] Crespin was then engaged by the Opéra national du Rhin to portray Elsa in Richard Wagner's Lohengrin – sung in French – at Mulhouse in 1950.[4] Received with positive reviews, Crespin was finally approached by the Paris Opéra with a contract. She accepted and made her debut there in 1951 singing Elsa.[8] On 27 June 1951 she made her debut at the Opéra-Comique singing the title role in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, later singing Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana.[9] However, her reception in Paris was somewhat cool and did not improve, despite performing a number of roles in that city from 1951/52.[10] Her contract wasn't renewed because the Director Maurice Lehmann thought she was "too fat".[11]

Crespin decided to leave Paris in 1952 and try her luck performing with opera houses in the provinces of France : she sang in Marseilles, Nîmes, Nice, Lyons, Bordeaux, Toulouse, etc. There she found her first critical successes, particularly in the roles of the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and Tosca, both sung in French.[2] In 1955 she returned to the Paris Opéra as Rezia in Carl Maria von Weber's Oberon.[10] This time enthusiastically received by Paris audiences, Crespin went on to sing several triumphant performances at that house over the next three years, as Desdemona in Giuseppe Verdi's Otello, Amelia in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Brunehild in Sigurd and Madame Lidoine in the 1957 Paris premiere of Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites among others.[2] She also continued to remain active in opera houses throughout France, notably singing in the world premiere of Marcel Mirouze's Geneviève de Paris at the Arena of Fourvière (Lyon) in 1955[12] and in another world premiere, Henri Tomasi's Sampiero Corsu at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in 1956.[10]

Rise to international success: 1958–1962

Crespin's international career began when she was chosen by Wieland Wagner to sing Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal at the 1958 Bayreuth Festival, despite the fact that she had never sung Wagner in German. To learn the role in German, she was coached by Lou Bruder, a professor of German literature who later became her husband.[4] When Crespin first auditioned for Wieland she had initially assumed that he would cast her in what the French call les wagnériennes blondes, such as Elsa, Eva, Sieglinde, and Elisabeth. She was therefore surprised when she was asked to tackle Kundry. Crespin recalls that when she expressed her surprise to Wieland he dismissed the other roles, saying, "Oh, those dummies, I don't like them. Look, you are not born for that, you have a better job to do." Crespin's performance was so well liked that she was invited to sing Kundry again for the 1959 and 1960 Bayreuth Festivals.[2] She returned to the festival again in 1961 to sing Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre and the third norn in Götterdämmerung.[10]

Crespin's performances of Kundry effectively launched her international opera career, and she was soon invited to perform on the stages of the world's great opera houses. In 1959 she made her debut at

Peabody Mason Concert series.[17]

Régine Crespin in the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, in 1987 during her last performance.

International acclaim: 1962–1989

She appeared as Tosca in Geneva in 1962 and in the same year she joined the roster of principal sopranos at the

Dialogues des Carmélites. All told Crespin appeared in 129 performances at the Metropolitan Opera during her career, performing with many leading singers of the time.[18]

During her years at the Metropolitan Opera, Crespin remained active on the international opera stage. In 1961 she made the first of many appearances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires singing the Marschallin and Kundry, returning the next year as Tosca, Fauré's Pénélope and the title role in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride and 1964 as both Cassandre and Didon in "Les Troyens". She came back as Berlioz's Marguerite, Werther's Charlotte, Carmen and The Queen of Spades. Her last role at that house was Madame Flora (Baba) in The Medium in 1987.

In 1966 she sang Ariadne at the

Opera Company of Philadelphia as Carmen (1978), the Countess (1983), and Madame Flora (1986). Under Karajan, in 1967 Crespin portrayed Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre for her first appearance at the Salzburg Festival. She also returned to the Opéra National de Paris a handful of times during her career, notably singing the title role in Fauré's Pénélope.[21] Her last opera performance was at the Paris Opéra in 1989 singing the Countess in The Queen of Spades.[22]
In 1970, after almost twenty years of faultless reviews, Crespin began experiencing some vocal challenges which caused her to re-evaluate her career. This coincided with the end of her marriage to Lou Bruder to whom she had been married for eleven years; the couple had no children. She also had illnesses and personal issues, all of which brought her to contemplate suicide.[23]

With Charlotte in Werther in 1974, Crespin began performing opera roles for mezzo-soprano to adjust to the change in her voice. However the timbre of her voice had not altered much from her earlier singing years and she therefore brought a different sound to these roles from that of the typical mezzo-soprano. Regardless, she was well received in her new choice of repertoire.[2][22] This period also led to her interest in Offenbach and her sophisticated wit found its place in recordings of Métella, the Grand Duchess of Gérolstein[24] and La Périchole, along with Dulcinée (Massenet's Don Quichotte).[7]

Crespin sang in many concert halls around the world, where her repertoire included Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust, and Les nuits d'été by Berlioz. In recital, along with lieder (Schumann, Schubert, Brahms) she excelled in the French mélodie repertoire, especially Debussy and Poulenc, where the savouring of words and ability to capture the mood of songs made her a memorable interpreter.[25] She gave the premiere of Marius Constant's Cinq Chants et une vocalise in 1968.[26]

Later life: 1990–2007

After retiring from singing in 1989, Crespin focused mainly on teaching. She had joined the faculty at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1974 and continued to teach there until 1995. She had also begun teaching at the

Merola Opera Program during the latter part of her career, and was involved with that program for more than twenty years. Crespin also frequently traveled to give master classes at Universities and music conservatories in Europe and the United States during her retirement years. She continued to teach until her death from liver cancer in Paris on 5 July 2007. She had previously overcome battles with cancer in 1978 and 1984.[2]

Her memoirs, La vie et l'amour d'une femme (the French name for

Frauenliebe und -leben), are quite candid, providing much detail of the singer's private life as well as unusual insights into her professional world. It was first published in French in 1982 and was republished in an expanded version called À la scene, à la ville - in English On Stage, Off Stage: A Memoir – in 1997.[27]

Crespin was appointed Chevalier of the

Légion d'honneur in 1972, and later made an Officer in 1982 and a Commander in 1994.[28]

Recordings

In her autobiography Crespin analyses the difficulties she found in the recording process, and notes that the Decca engineers called her, affectionately, 'the French cannon' due to the size of her voice.[29]

Crespin left a considerable discography, starting, in the early part of her career, with recital discs for Véga,

Suisse Romande Orchestra is regarded by many as one of the finest versions on disc. Among her other important recordings were Sieglinde in Die Walküre, and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, both for Decca with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Sir Georg Solti, and Brünnhilde in Die Walküre with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan on Deutsche Grammophon
.

The discography section of her autobiography contains entries for complete works of composers from Berlioz, Bizet, Fauré, Massenet, Offenbach, Poulenc, Strauss to Wagner. She won prizes from the Académie du Disque lyrique, Grand Prix du Disque and Académie Charles-Cros.[30]

From 1954, Crespin regularly featured in numerous broadcasts on the French Radio and Television. Most of them have been archived by the Institut national de l'audiovisuel.

References

  1. ^ Fondation Long-Thibaud-Crespin website
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Choi, Janet A.; Zahr, Oussama (5 July 2007). "Régine Crespin, 80, Luminous French Soprano, Has Died". Opera News. Retrieved 18 May 2009.
  3. ^ Pesqué, Jérôme (2021). Régine Crespin: La vie et le chant d'une femme. Paris: Amazon KDP. pp. 15–16, 156 (photograph of the store and Crespin's parents), 542, 564.
  4. ^ a b c d The New York Times "Régine Crespin, French Soprano, Dies at 80" 6 July. 2007
  5. ^ AP via Washington Post, "French Opera Great Crespin Dies at 80", July 5, 2007
  6. ^ Gourret J. Dictionnaire des Cantatrices de l'Opéra. Editions Albatros, Paris, 1987.
  7. ^ a b Loppert M. Régine Crespin 1927–2007. Opera, September 2007, 1058–1062.
  8. ISBN 9780195337655
    .
  9. ^ Wolff S. Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900–1950). André Bonne, Paris, 1953.
  10. ^
    ISBN 0-8019-5516-5
    .
  11. ISBN 978-2957686209
    .
  12. ISBN 978-2957686209
    .
  13. ^ Fedra on operalively.com
  14. ^ Fedra on Resmusica
  15. ^ Loppert M. The Marschallin. Opera in character – Great singers in great roles, 2004, 50–51.
  16. ^ Lyric Opera of Chicago Archives
  17. ^ Boston Globe, 18 February 1966, "Regine Crespin sings beautiful program"
  18. ^ Metropolitan Opera Archives
  19. ^ San Francisco Opera Archives
  20. ^ Free Library of Philadelphia: Box: Phila. Lyric Opera Company: 782.1 P5326p Bal Two [1968–1975]
  21. ^ The live recording of her 1956 portrayal under Inghelbrecht was re-issued in 2007. Review in Opera, March 2007, 353–355.
  22. ^ a b Biography of Régine Crespin at operissimo.com [dead link]
  23. ^ Matt Schudel, Washington Post, 7 July 2007
  24. ^ La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein was also filmed for French television (INA/FR3) in 1980 in the production by Robert Dhéry, with Crespin in the title role.
  25. ^ Blyth, Alan. Two Legendary French Sopranos. Note to Classic Archive DVD Régine Crespin, 2002.
  26. ^ Alain Pâris. Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle. Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris, 1995 (p325-326).
  27. ^ Washington Post, "French Opera Great Crespin Dies at 80" July 5, 2007
  28. ^ The Times, Regine Crespin: French opera singer whose sensuous voice and acting were matched by a life candidly recounted in a racy memoir
  29. ^ Loppert M. Crespin at 75. Opera, April 2002, 418–422. The chapter in her autobiography is entitled "Micro, mon cher cauchemar" (The microphone, my beloved nightmare).
  30. ^ Crespin, Regine. À la scene, à la ville. Actes Sud, 1997, p381-383; p395.

External links

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