Irène Aïtoff (30 July 1904 – 5 June 2006) was a French pianist and
vocal coach
A vocal coach, also known as a voice coach (though this term often applies to those working with speech and communication rather than singing), is a music teacher, usually a piano accompanist, who helps singers prepare for a performance, often a ...
Côtes-d'Armor
The Côtes-d'Armor (, ; ; br, Aodoù-an-Arvor, ), formerly known as Côtes-du-Nord ( br, Aodoù-an-Hanternoz, link=no, ), are a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 600,582.
), Aïtoff was admitted in the
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
after having been introduced to Alfred Cortot. She was quickly recognized in musical circles as an excellent pianist, but did not make a concert career.
From 1932 to 1939, she accompanied the singer
Yvette Guilbert
Yvette Guilbert (; born Emma Laure Esther Guilbert, 20 January 1865 – 3 February 1944) was a French cabaret singer and actress of the '' Belle Époque''.
Biography
Born in Paris into a poor family as Emma Laure Esther Guilbert, Guilbert b ...
with whom she discovered that "French singing is inseparable from the text." Therefore, diction was essential for her.
From 1940, her name was often associated with that of the great conductor Charles Munch, of whom she became an important collaborator, known for her ability to teach singers their role, to reduce or transpose orchestral scores.
She was also vocal conductor at the
Aix-en-Provence Festival
The Festival d'Aix-en-Provence is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental ...
Teresa Berganza
Teresa Berganza Vargas OAXS (16 March 1933 – 13 May 2022) was a Spanish mezzo-soprano. She is most closely associated with roles such as Rossini's Rosina and La Cenerentola, and later Bizet's Carmen, admired for her technical virtuosity, mu ...
,
Teresa Stich-Randall
Teresa Stich-Randall ( Stich; 24 December 1927 17 July 2007) was a European-based American soprano opera singer.Pelléas et Mélisande''.
In 1973, she worked for '' The Marriage of Figaro'' directed by
Giorgio Strehler
Giorgio Strehler (; ; 14 August 1921 – 25 December 1997) was an actor, Italian opera and theatre director.
Biography
Strehler was born in Barcola, Trieste; His father, Bruno Strehler, was a native of Trieste with family roots in Vienna and die ...
. Her spat with chef Georg Solti became famous.
Until the beginning of this 21st century, Irène Aïtoff gave her advice and observations to many students, and worked with various renowned chefs, including Georg Solti and Charles Dutoit. She was known for her uncommon will and the extreme rigour of her demands, especially of herself. In 1994, she accompanied for her show ''L'Absinthe'' on songs from 1900.
At the Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne in 1995, she was in charge of rehearsals of Auber's ''
Le domino noir
''Le domino noir'' (''The Black Domino'') is an '' opéra comique'' by the French composer Daniel Auber, first performed on 2 December 1837 by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris.Wild and Charlton (2005), p. 226. The lib ...
'', a work that had totalled 1209 performances at the Salle Favart between 1837 and 1909.
On 30 May 2002, on the centenary of ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, that which had become with the passing of time, and in spite of the most complete ignorance of the media spheres, a figure of the French musical life had insisted, in spite of her great age, to mark the event of her presence.
In 2008, filmmaker devoted a documentary called ''La Grande Mademoiselle'' to her.
Aïtoff died in Paris at the age of 101.Obituary in ''
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...