Régine Crespin - A Portrait
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Giacomo Puccini, Gabriel Fauré, (Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, (Marie) Joseph Canteloube (de Calaret), Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Gioachino Rossini, Henri(-Pierre) Sauguet, Albert (Charles Paul Marie) Roussel
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 4/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 280
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: 764434-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Il) trovatore, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Otto Ackermann, Conductor Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Otello, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Otto Ackermann, Conductor Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Otello, Movement: Ave Maria |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Otto Ackermann, Conductor Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (Un) ballo in maschera, '(A) masked ball', Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Paris Conservatoire Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Macbeth, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Paris Conservatoire Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Don Carlo, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Paris Conservatoire Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Don Carlo, Movement: Tu che le vanità |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Paris Conservatoire Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Aida, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Paris Conservatoire Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Guillaume Tell, Movement: Ils s'éloignent enfin (S'allontanano alfine!) |
Gioachino Rossini, Composer
Gioachino Rossini, Composer Otto Ackermann, Conductor Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Guillaume Tell, Movement: Sombre fôret (Selva opaca) |
Gioachino Rossini, Composer
Gioachino Rossini, Composer Otto Ackermann, Conductor Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (La) Damnation de Faust, Movement: ~ |
Hector Berlioz, Composer
Hector Berlioz, Composer Otto Ackermann, Conductor Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Tannhäuser, Movement: Dich teure Halle (Elisabeth's Greeting) |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Otto Ackermann, Conductor Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano Richard Wagner, Composer |
| Tannhäuser, Movement: Allmächt'ge Jungfrau (Elisabeth's Prayer) |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Otto Ackermann, Conductor Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano Richard Wagner, Composer |
| Lohengrin, Movement: Einsam in trüben Tagen (Elsa's Dream) |
Richard Wagner, Composer
French Radio National Orchestra Georges Prêtre, Conductor Régine Crespin, Soprano Richard Wagner, Composer |
| Lohengrin, Movement: Euch Lüften, die mein Klagen |
Richard Wagner, Composer
French Radio National Orchestra Georges Prêtre, Conductor Régine Crespin, Soprano Richard Wagner, Composer |
| (Der) Ring des Nibelungen: Part 2, '(Die) Walküre', Movement: Der Männer Sippe |
Richard Wagner, Composer
French Radio National Orchestra Georges Prêtre, Conductor Régine Crespin, Soprano Richard Wagner, Composer |
| Parsifal, Movement: Ich sah das Kind (Herzeleide) |
Richard Wagner, Composer
French Radio National Orchestra Georges Prêtre, Conductor Régine Crespin, Soprano Richard Wagner, Composer |
| Wesendonck Lieder |
Richard Wagner, Composer
French Radio National Orchestra Georges Prêtre, Conductor Régine Crespin, Soprano Richard Wagner, Composer |
| (L')Invitation au voyage |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Janine Reiss, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Testament |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Janine Reiss, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Chanson triste |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Janine Reiss, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (Le) Manoir de Rosemonde |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Janine Reiss, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Élégie |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Janine Reiss, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Phidylé |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Janine Reiss, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: Soir (wds. A. Samain) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer John Wustman, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Le secret (wds. Silvestre: 1880-81) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer John Wustman, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Au bord de l'eau (wds. Prudhomme: 1875) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer John Wustman, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Après un rêve (wds. anon, trans Bussine |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer John Wustman, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Clair de lune (wds. Verlaine) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer John Wustman, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Chants d'Auvergne, Movement: Lo fiolairé |
(Marie) Joseph Canteloube (de Calaret), Composer
(Marie) Joseph Canteloube (de Calaret), Composer John Wustman, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Chants d'Auvergne, Movement: Lou coucut |
(Marie) Joseph Canteloube (de Calaret), Composer
(Marie) Joseph Canteloube (de Calaret), Composer John Wustman, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (2) Mélodies, Movement: Coeur en péril |
Albert (Charles Paul Marie) Roussel, Composer
Albert (Charles Paul Marie) Roussel, Composer John Wustman, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Berceuse créole |
Henri(-Pierre) Sauguet, Composer
Henri(-Pierre) Sauguet, Composer John Wustman, Piano Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (Les) Troyens, '(The) Trojans', Movement: ~ |
Hector Berlioz, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Hector Berlioz, Composer Paris Opera Chorus Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (Les) Troyens, '(The) Trojans', Movement: Je vais mourir |
Hector Berlioz, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Hector Berlioz, Composer Paris Opera Chorus Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| (Les) Troyens, '(The) Trojans', Movement: Adieu, fière cité |
Hector Berlioz, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Hector Berlioz, Composer Paris Opera Chorus Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Hérodiade, Movement: ~ |
Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer
Albert Lance, Tenor Georges Prêtre, Conductor Jacques Mars, Baritone Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Hérodiade, Movement: Calmez donc vos fureurs |
Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer
Albert Lance, Tenor Georges Prêtre, Conductor Jacques Mars, Baritone Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer Paris Opera Orchestra Régine Crespin, Soprano |
| Tosca, Movement: ~ |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Giacomo Puccini, Composer Paris Opera Orchestra Paul Finel, Tenor Régine Crespin, Soprano René Bianco, Baritone |
| Tosca, Movement: Vissi d'arte |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Georges Prêtre, Conductor Giacomo Puccini, Composer Paris Opera Orchestra Paul Finel, Tenor Régine Crespin, Soprano René Bianco, Baritone |
Author: Patrick O'Connor
Crespin—in one's memory immediately comes the image of warm femininity, slightly nervous sensuality, a voice of great beauty, not always under perfect control but with a generosity and majesty about the phrasing and diction. These records for EMI were made between 1958 and 1972; at the same time she recorded a good deal for Decca and if one were choosing examples of her art for an ideal portrait one would need to hear her as the Marschallin, either in the complete Solti version (3/87) or even better the highlights under Varviso with the incomparable Octavian of Soderstrom (3/65—nla), and of course her much admired versions of Ravel's Sheherazade and Berlioz's Nuits d'ete with Ansermet (11/88). Nevertheless this is a fascinating collection, four well-filled CDs.
The first is devoted to Verdi. The most important item is the beautiful Willow Song and Ave Maria, with Ackermann, from her first studio session. When Poulenc chose her the year before to sing Mme Lidoine in the French premiere of Carmelites, it was as a result of hearing her as Desdemona at L'Opera. I don't think she ever sang Aida on stage, and certainly not Lady Macbeth, Eboli or Elisabeth de Valois. Her account of ''Ritorna vincitor'' is nobly phrased, the Sleepwalking Scene from Macbeth very slow but with a real dream-world quality, ''O don fatale'' surprisingly vehement and a heartfelt ''Tu che le vanita''—Karajan wanted her for a Don Carlo, but it never came to pass. There are moments of great beauty, individual phrases, characterful notes in every aria, yet one would not choose any of these Verdi arias as an ideal—her near contemporaries Callas, Price and Caballe all steal a march.
It is a completely different story when one gets to the second disc. Here in Mathilde's aria from Guillaume Tell and Marguerite's lament from La damnation de Faust one gets a taste of her real strength. Then comes the famous Wagner recital. When Crespin auditioned for Wieland Wagner at Bayreuth she was 29 and already a leading soprano in Paris. He declared that he had had enough of dark voices for Kundry and chose Crespin. ''I want a sunny voice, Mediterranean like yours, as golden as your hair,'' he said. She sang Kundry and Sieglinde at Bayreuth for several seasons; for Anglo-American ears her diction sounds excellent, though I suppose for German audiences there is a hint of a southern accent. What could be more appropriate for the seductress in Parsifal or the sequence ofWesendonk-Lieder. I recall Crespin singing ''Schmerzen'' as her first encore at a packed Wigmore Hall recital in 1979, with wonderfully controlled emotion. This is evident in all these Wagner extracts and of course she sang Elisabeth (both arias, with Ackermann), Elsa, in London with Klemperer, and the other roles often on stage. (Elsa was her debut role at the Paris Opera in 1951.) Crespin's voice was not easy to capture on tape: in her autobiography she writes that ''Les Decca Boys'' used to laugh ''Voila le canon francais! Fermez tout!''.
The third CD is my favourite, a song recital with John Wustman and Janine Reiss accompanying. No doubt her performance of Schumann'sLiederkreis, Op. 39 would not be the first choice for everyone's library, but what a wealth of detail and warmth she brings to it. The last ounce of venom is missing from ''Kommst nimmermehr aus diesem Wald!'' at the end of Waldesgesprach but the lyrical musing of Wehmut and the second Im der Fremde suit her perfectly.
The Duparc songs with Reiss were not issued at the time of recording in 1972, presumably something else had been intended to make a second LP side. The voice had gained more of a beat by then, especially noticeable in the openingL'Invitation au Voyage. Le Manoir de Rosamonde is splendid with a tense, hushed ending. Elegie exposes some strain again—when one jumps back six years on the next track to the opening of a Faure group from 1966, the voice is steadier, the soft notes more easily sustained. At the end of the recital of melodies comes the only glimpse on these CDs of Crespin's delicious sense of humour, in two of Canteloube's Auvergne songs, Lo fiolaire and Lou coucut, then best of all Roussel's Coeur en peril and Sauget's Berceuse creole—a favourite encore.
The fourth CD is a bit of a rag-bag, extracts from three selections of opera highlights. The first, and often reissued, recordings of scenes from Les troyens finds Crespin reserved and very good as Cassandre, a role she undertook in the USA and at the Theatro Colon, Buenos Aires, but not, I think, in France. Inexplicably the editors cut in to Dido's big Act 5 scene at ''Je vais mourir'', depriving us of the dramatic preceding recitative. The two arias and duet from Massenet's Herodiade find Albert Lance in fine voice as Jean; what a pity this was not a complete recording (the original LP also featured Rita Gorr as Herodiade herself). As for Tosca in French, it is understandable to want to end with Crespin's ''D'art et d'amour''—it was the role in which she made her Parisian debut at the Opera Comique—but the scenes with Cavaradossi (Paul Finel) and Scarpia (Rene Bianco) sound rather prosaic. Better to have included something from Carmelites. Crespin described the microphone as ''Mon cher cauchemar (nightmare)'' and recording as ''a torture''. So, certainly, she was always at her best on stage or platform but the presence of this most graceful and communicative of prima donnas is felt throughout these discs.'
The first is devoted to Verdi. The most important item is the beautiful Willow Song and Ave Maria, with Ackermann, from her first studio session. When Poulenc chose her the year before to sing Mme Lidoine in the French premiere of Carmelites, it was as a result of hearing her as Desdemona at L'Opera. I don't think she ever sang Aida on stage, and certainly not Lady Macbeth, Eboli or Elisabeth de Valois. Her account of ''Ritorna vincitor'' is nobly phrased, the Sleepwalking Scene from Macbeth very slow but with a real dream-world quality, ''O don fatale'' surprisingly vehement and a heartfelt ''Tu che le vanita''—Karajan wanted her for a Don Carlo, but it never came to pass. There are moments of great beauty, individual phrases, characterful notes in every aria, yet one would not choose any of these Verdi arias as an ideal—her near contemporaries Callas, Price and Caballe all steal a march.
It is a completely different story when one gets to the second disc. Here in Mathilde's aria from Guillaume Tell and Marguerite's lament from La damnation de Faust one gets a taste of her real strength. Then comes the famous Wagner recital. When Crespin auditioned for Wieland Wagner at Bayreuth she was 29 and already a leading soprano in Paris. He declared that he had had enough of dark voices for Kundry and chose Crespin. ''I want a sunny voice, Mediterranean like yours, as golden as your hair,'' he said. She sang Kundry and Sieglinde at Bayreuth for several seasons; for Anglo-American ears her diction sounds excellent, though I suppose for German audiences there is a hint of a southern accent. What could be more appropriate for the seductress in Parsifal or the sequence of
The third CD is my favourite, a song recital with John Wustman and Janine Reiss accompanying. No doubt her performance of Schumann's
The Duparc songs with Reiss were not issued at the time of recording in 1972, presumably something else had been intended to make a second LP side. The voice had gained more of a beat by then, especially noticeable in the opening
The fourth CD is a bit of a rag-bag, extracts from three selections of opera highlights. The first, and often reissued, recordings of scenes from Les troyens finds Crespin reserved and very good as Cassandre, a role she undertook in the USA and at the Theatro Colon, Buenos Aires, but not, I think, in France. Inexplicably the editors cut in to Dido's big Act 5 scene at ''Je vais mourir'', depriving us of the dramatic preceding recitative. The two arias and duet from Massenet's Herodiade find Albert Lance in fine voice as Jean; what a pity this was not a complete recording (the original LP also featured Rita Gorr as Herodiade herself). As for Tosca in French, it is understandable to want to end with Crespin's ''D'art et d'amour''—it was the role in which she made her Parisian debut at the Opera Comique—but the scenes with Cavaradossi (Paul Finel) and Scarpia (Rene Bianco) sound rather prosaic. Better to have included something from Carmelites. Crespin described the microphone as ''Mon cher cauchemar (nightmare)'' and recording as ''a torture''. So, certainly, she was always at her best on stage or platform but the presence of this most graceful and communicative of prima donnas is felt throughout these discs.'
Régine Crespin - A Portrait
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