Suzanne Berchut, called Suzanne Balguerie (29 June 1888 – 17 February 1973) was a French operatic singer (
dramatic soprano
A dramatic soprano is a type of operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually (but not always) mean less agility than lighter voices but a ...
Messiaen
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonicall ...
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...
, Balguerie studied singing at 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 ...
. She first became known through concerts, which allowed her to interpret the modern music that interested her most. She died in
Saint-Martin-d'Hères
Saint-Martin-d'Hères (; frp, Sant-Martin-d’Èra) is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. Part of the Grenoble urban unit (agglomeration),Opéra-Comique, for her first appearance on stage, Balguerie played Ariane in Dukas' '' Ariane et Barbe-Bleue''. Her performance won praise from Gabriel Fauré who said : "I don't think there is a more important role for the theatre, both in terms of its proportions and in terms of all the qualities it demands. Mrs. Balguerie emerged from the ordeal triumphantly. ..She] possesses, at the same time as a beautiful warm, well timbred, extended voice, a sure voice, and, rare quality, a very remarkable verbal articulation. ..She] played this role of Ariane whose nuances are infinite, with a truly remarkable accuracy and simplicity".
André Tubeuf
André Tubeuf (18 December 1930 – 26 July 2021) was a French writer, philosopher, and music critic.
Biography Training
Tubeuf was born in Smyrna (today İzmir), Turkey. A condisciple in Beirut, Lebanon, France, of Salah Stétié and Robert A ...
writes: "Her Ariane is that of a prodigious singer who masters the impossible equation of making the words ..all the more intelligible, luminescent even as the range warms up and lights up too" and Jean-Charles Hoffelé: "It should not be forgotten that the absolute Ariade was Suzanne Balguerie, trained at the Gluckist school for whom the word is everything".
Balguerie then made a career at the Opéra-Comique. She played Donna Anna in '' Don Giovanni'', the countess in '' The Marriage of Figaro'', ''
Tosca
''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language drama ...
'' and Mélisande. In 1923, she appeared in Fauré's ''
Penelope
Penelope ( ; Ancient Greek: Πηνελόπεια, ''Pēnelópeia'', or el, Πηνελόπη, ''Pēnelópē'') is a character in Homer's ''Odyssey.'' She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and naiad Periboea. Pe ...
''. She first sang the role in 1931."As pertains Pénélope's role, Mrs. Balguerie was simply sublime" wrote Francis Poulenc.
Isolde
In 1925,
Albert Carré
Albert Carré (born Strasbourg 22 June 1852, died Paris 12 December 1938) was a French theatre director, opera director, actor and librettist. He was the nephew of librettist Michel Carré (1821–1872) and cousin of cinema director Michel Carré ...
, the director of the Opéra-Comique, scheduled ''
Tristan und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was comp ...
'' for Balguerie. As with Ariane, it was a triumph: "Madame Balguerie, feline, passionate, a sorceress... with a prodigious voice, is the Wagnerian Isolde herself". Balguerie sang Isolde 275 times.
Premieres
On 21 March 1919, in the bookshop of
Adrienne Monnier
Adrienne Monnier (26 April 1892 – 19 June 1955) was a French bookseller, writer, and publisher, and an influential figure in the modernist writing scene in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.
Formative years
Monnier was born in Paris on 26 April 18 ...
rue de l'Odéon
The rue de l'Odéon is a street in the Odéon quarter of the 6th arrondissement of Paris on the Left Bank. Because of the presence of two bohemian bookstores, run respectively by Adrienne Monnier and Sylvia Beach, and the coterie of emergent A ...
, she sang a sneak preview of Satie's ''
Socrate
''Socrate'' is a work for voice and piano (or small orchestra) by Erik Satie. First published in 1919 for voice and piano, in 1920 a different publisher reissued the piece "revised and corrected". Wolfgang Rathert and Andreas Traub, "Zu einer bi ...
Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...
,
Francis Jammes
Francis Jammes (; 2 December 1868, in Tournay, Hautes-Pyrénées – 1 November 1938, in Hasparren, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) was a French and European poet. He spent most of his life in his native region of Béarn and the Basque Country and his po ...
, and the musicians of
Les Six
"Les Six" () is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's '' The Five'', originates in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in ' ...
.
In 1936, Balguerie premiered two of the ''
Poèmes pour Mi
''Poèmes pour Mi'' (Poems for Mi) is a song cycle for dramatic soprano and piano or orchestra by Olivier Messiaen, composed in 1936 and 1937 and dedicated to his first wife, Claire Delbos. The text are poems by the composer based on the New Testa ...
'' by Messiaen. "She did it with extraordinary vocal power and dramatic intensity", wrote the composer, who was at the piano. The same year, Adrien Rougier dedicated two of his ''Trois mélodies sur des poèmes d’Albert Samain, pour soprano et piano'' to her.
At the Opéra-Comique, Balguerie premiered works that are not very popular today. In 1922, Jean Cras' '' Polyphème'' and Alfred Bachelet's ''Quand la cloche sonnera''. In 1923, ''La Brebis égarée'',
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...
's first opera, with a libretto by
Francis Jammes
Francis Jammes (; 2 December 1868, in Tournay, Hautes-Pyrénées – 1 November 1938, in Hasparren, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) was a French and European poet. He spent most of his life in his native region of Béarn and the Basque Country and his po ...
. In 1924,
Henri Rabaud
Henri Benjamin Rabaud (10 November 187311 September 1949) was a French conductor, composer and pedagogue, who held important posts in the French musical establishment and upheld mainly conservative trends in French music in the first half of th ...
's ''L'Appel de la mer''. In 1927, Balguerie premiered Léo Sachs ''Les Burgraves'' at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées which she then revived at the
Opéra Garnier
The Palais Garnier (, Garnier Palace), also known as Opéra Garnier (, Garnier Opera), is a 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from ...
.
At the Opéra Garnier, in 1923, she sang the role of Brünnhilde. In 1932, she premiered Alfred Bachelet's ''
Un jardin sur l'Oronte
''Un jardin sur l'Oronte'' (''A Garden on the Orontes'') is a novel by Maurice Barrès, which was first published in 1922 by Plon-Nourrit. Barrès purportedly transcribed in it a story which an Irish archaeologist had translated to him from a man ...
'', and, in 1934,
Georges Martin Witkowski
Georges Martin Witkowski (6 January 1867 – 12 August 1943) was a French conductor and composer.
Career
Born in Mostaganem, French Algeria, Witkowski started out in the army, becoming a cavalry officer and meeting Louis Vierne during that time ...
's ''La Princesse lointaine'', with a libretto by Edmond Rostand. She also performed as Marguerite in a series of ''
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...
''. In 1944, at
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
, she premiered Richard Strauss' ''
Die ägyptische Helena
''Die ägyptische Helena'' (''The Egyptian Helen''), Op. 75, is an opera in two acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It premiered at the Dresden Semperoper on 6 June 1928. Strauss had written the title role with ...
'' in France.
Concerts
Balguerie's concert activity far exceeded her operatic performances. She performed frequently with leading French orchestras, also in Switzerland, very regularly, with
Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Alexandre Ansermet (; 11 November 1883 – 20 February 1969)"Ansermet, Ernest" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 435. was a Swiss conductor.
Biography
Ansermet ...
. At recitals, she performed cycles such as Fauré's ''
La Bonne Chanson
La Bonne Chanson is a Canadian publishing and independent record label that is "dedicated to the dissemination of French and French-Canadian songs of quality". It was founded in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada
Canada is a country in ...
'', and also classical and contemporary melodies. She gave a series of concerts with Francis Poulenc and
Pierre Bernac
Pierre Louis Bernac (né Bertin; 12 January 1899 – 17 October 1979) was a French singer, a baryton-martin, known as an interpreter of the French mélodie. He had a close artistic association with Francis Poulenc, with whom he performed i ...
.
The choice of this repertoire was controversial. At the performance of
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...
's ''La Brebis égarée'' in 1923: "The police intervened and stopped the music. Wolff yelled at the audience", wrote the composer to his friend Francis Poulenc.
Under the occupation by Nazi Germany, engagements were scarce; she found herself in poverty when she retired in 1950. In 1953, she was appointed professor at the Conservatoire de Grenoble and at Geneva.
Her personality
The singer
Madeleine Grey
Madeleine Grey (11 June 1896 – 13 March 1979) was a French classical singer whose voice is usually described as soprano but which also encompassed a mezzo-soprano repertoire.
Early life
Madeleine Grey (née Madeleine Nathalie Grumberg) was bo ...
said: "There was one I loved most of all, Suzanne Balguerie. We cannot forget the way she sang Ariane, by Dukas. She was by no means jealous. She wanted me to replace her when she was unavailable. She was a first-class artist. I was absolutely dazzled. She had everything, this woman. First she was a great, great artist. But she was one of those who have a hobby. She was a painter. Her paintings, it seems, were very beautiful. So she was not one of those singers who threw herself on their singing, with the ambition of being the greatest. That's probably why she didn't have an international career. It's a pity.Gérard Zwang, ''Mémoires d'une chanteuse française. La vie et les amours de Madeleine Grey (1896-1979)'',
L'Harmattan
Éditions L'Harmattan, usually known simply as L'Harmattan (), is one of the largest French book publishers. It specialises in non-fiction books with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. It is named after the Harmattan, a trade wind in ...
, Paris, 2008."
.
Discography
For the
Polydor
Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States ...
label, Balguerie recorded excerpts from ''Iphigénie en Tauride'', ''Alceste'', ''Tannhäuser'', ''The Flying Dutchman'', ''Aïda'', ''Sigurd'', ''Faust'' and ''Fidélio''.
For Columbia, excerpts from ''Alceste'' and ''Ariane et Barbe Bleue'', as well as ''Le Poème de la maison'' (1918), a cantata by Georges-Martin Witkowski. On CD, she can be heard in music from ''Ariane'', ''Alceste'' and ''Iphigénie en Tauride'' in the box set ''Les introuvables du chant français'' (EMI 585828-2).
