Leopold Simoneau (tenor)
with various soloists, orchestras and conductors
rec. 1951-1959
Full contents list at end of review
DOCUMENTS 600044 [10 CDs: 682:20]
The Canadian Leopold Simoneau (1916-2006) was one of the foremost lyric
tenors during the 1950s and early 1960s. As a Mozart singer he had no
peer and few equals. In French lyrical repertoire only Nicolai Gedda could
challenge him. Many of his recordings are today collectors’ items.
Some of them are quite hard to come by since he recorded extensively for
the long defunct Concert Hall Record Club. It was through some of those
recordings that I first discovered him in the early and mid-1960s. For
me he is still the supreme lyric tenor of the post-war years.
On these ten well-filled CDs we get a rounded portrait of him in studio
recordings as well as numerous excerpts from live performances. Not all
of the latter are sonically top-notch but they are fully listenable.
CD 1 Gluck and Mozart [67:51]
Simoneau’s complete recording of Orphée et Eurydice
for Philips (1956) with Suzanne Danco and his wife Pierrette Alarie is
still regarded as definitive, at least when it comes to the interpretation
of the role of Orphée. The opera was originally written for Vienna
in 1762, where the title role was sung by a castrato alto. Gluck revised
it for Paris in 1774 and then for a high tenor. Today it is in the Berlioz
version for contralto from 1859, a concoction of the Vienna and Paris
versions, that we most frequently hear it. Bearing in mind that we don’t
have many tenors in the Simoneau class, it’s no wonder that the
Paris version is a relative rarity. The two arias that open CD 1 are glorious
testimony to Simoneau’s supremacy in the field, but the orchestra
is nothing to write home about.
Iphigénie en Tauride from 1779 is arguably Gluck’s
most consummate composition. The live recording from which the two excerpts
on this disc are culled, is to my knowledge the earliest preserved documentation
of the work. It was recorded at Aix-en-Provence under Carlo Maria Giulini
and the sound is acceptable but a bit tiring. Besides Simoneau’s
superb Pylade we also hear Pierre Mollet’s Oreste and Patricia Neway’s
Iphigénie.
The arias from Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito are mostly
from studio recitals from the mid-1950s, but Spiegarti non poss’io
(tr. 7) with Erika Köth as Ilia is a live recording from a Mozart-Fest
in Würzburg, and Come ti piace, imponi (tr. 11) with Pierrette
Alarie is from the Salzburg Festival. Alarie is as lovely as ever.
CD 2 Mozart: Die Zauberflöte and Die
Entführung aus dem Serail [73:53]
The two opening tracks here are also classics: Dies Bildnis and
the duet between Pamina and Tamino from the complete Zauberflöte
under Karl Böhm (Decca, 1955). The Bildnis-aria was on an
EP that I bought very early and it is still my favourite rendition, though
Wunderlich, also under Böhm (DG), is in the same league. Hilde Güden
is a lovely Pamina in the duet.
The remaining four tracks from Zauberflöte are from a live
performance at the Salzburg Festival in 1959, conducted by George Szell.
The stellar cast includes Lisa Della Casa’s Pamina, Hans Hotter’s
Sprecher and Kurt Böhme’s Sarastro. I have only one marginal
complaint: on a disc devoted to the art of Leopold Simoneau, couldn’t
there have been a separate cue-point for the tenor aria Wie stark ist
nicht dein Zauberton?
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is represented by yet another
legendary recording, Thomas Beecham’s from 1956. Lois Marshall may
not be my ideal Konstanze though she is very good, but Simoneau is
my ideal Belmonte: light, flexible, elegant. Just listen to Wenn der
Freude Tränen fliessen (tr. 10). Beecham cut Ich baue ganz
auf deine Stärke from his ‘complete’ set but Simoneau
had recorded it on a recital record the year before, and that version
is included here as track 12. As track 11 there is also the duet Welch
ein Geschick with Erika Köth from the same Würzburg concert
as the Idomeneo duet on CD 1. Köth is good but Pierrette Alarie
is even better, which we can experience on CD 8. That version is from
a Concert Hall LP that fortunately is available complete in a Doremi box
with the couple.
CD 3 Mozart: Don Giovanni[67:57]
Almost 68 minutes of music from Don Giovanni is included here,
most of it (trs. 3-9) from a live performance in Salzburg, 1956, the bicentenary
of Mozart’s birth. What a cast! With Dimitri Mitropoulos and the
Vienna Phil in the pit, Rita Streich as Zerlina, Lisa Della Casa as Donna
Elvira, Elisabeth Grümmer as Donna Anna, Walter Berry as Masetto,
Fernando Corena as Leporello and Cesare Siepi as Don Giovanni one could
hardly imagine a more starry gathering. On top of that we get the sterling
Don Ottavio of Leopold Simoneau. The sound is distant but clear, the production
noisy but the singing is God-sent. Both tenor arias are there and they
begin and end the disc in alternative recordings. Dalla sua pace
(tr. 1) is from a concert in Cologne with Otto Klemperer, no less, conducting.
This is followed by the legendary studio recording of Il mio tesoro
from the complete Philips Don Giovanni under Rudolf Moralt. At
the end we hear Dalla sua pace from a Montreal broadcast (I believe)
and finally Il mio tesoro from a 1954 studio session.
CD 4 Mozart: Così fan tutte , La
finta giardiniera and Drei Lieder [63:44]
Another of those legendary Simoneau recordings is Così fan tutte
from 1954, conducted by Herbert von Karajan and with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf,
Nan Merriman, Rolando Panerai and Sesto Bruscantini in the leading roles.
Again it is hard to imagine a more distinguished group of Mozarteans.
Leopold Simoneau’s ardent and elegant Ferrando is a model of Mozart
singing. Un’ aura amorosa is delicious and the duet with
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s FiordiligiFra gli amplessi riveting.
Both these numbers are also included in alternative versions, Un aura
in what I believe is a broadcast from 1953 (tr. 1) and the duet from the
Concert Hall record I mentioned earlier, with Pierrette Alarie. Here in
1959 Simoneau is slightly more strained but his wife is as glittering
as ever, which she also is in the duet from La finta giardiniera
from the same 1959 recording. A slightly more strained Simoneau still
out-sings most of the competition.
The three Mozart songs that conclude the disc were also in the Doremi
box and in my review I then wrote: ‘Simoneau also stands out as
a superb Lieder singer and his Abendempfindung can challenge any
version I have in my collection.’
At this point we leave Mozart for the time being and turn to the French
repertoire.
CD 5 Thomas, Gounod, Lalo, Delibes, Offenbach [79:30]
Leopold Simoneau recorded for a lot of different commercial record companies.
On the first four discs in this box we hear recordings from Philips, Decca,
EMI, Concert Hall, Ducretet-Thomson and possibly one or two other labels.
The first three tracks on this disc are originals from Deutsche Grammophon.
They have already been available on the yellow label and are, together
with the rest of the items on that disc - some of which also appear here
- music that is seldom far from my favourite chair, which is fixed beside
my CD-player. Only a native speaker can deliver these arias so authentically
and very few native speakers have singing voices to match. The Mignon
arias pour like gold from the throat and mouth of Leopold Simoneau and
even more so in the Faust duet. There Pierrette Alarie’s
singing also is divine. They recorded Faust complete some years
later for Concert Hall, a recording that is available on CD. Three duets
from Mireille and Roméo et Juliette (tr. 4 - 6) recorded
in Paris in 1953 are also magically sung. If O nuit divine! (tr.
5) doesn’t make your heart melt, then you are colder than Turandot.
A Hamburg recording of the aria Vainement, ma bien aimée
from the rarely heard Le roi d’Ys by Eduard Lalo is also
compellingly performed.
Gérard in Leo Delibes’ exotic opera Lakmé is
another role that suits the Simoneau voice-type and slim-line elegance
to perfection. Tracks 8-11 treat us to more than twenty minutes of delicious
singing. My only regret is that there wasn’t room for Alarie’s
Bell Song. The concluding four items are from a complete recording
of Les contes d’Hoffmann, originally recorded by Epic in
1958 but some years later also issued by Concert Hall. Hoffmann was not
in Simoneau’s stage repertoire - neither were Faust and Don José.
In the recording studio he could manage it, as he graphically tells us
in an interview -
or rather two interviews from the mid-1980s with Pierrette Alarie and
Leopold Simoneau: very illuminating about their lives and careers and
their opinions on various subjects. His song about Kleinzach is very good
- small-scale compared to Gedda or Domingo but still authentic. We also
get glimpses of Giulietta and Antonia, the latter in particular is movingly
interpreted by the delectable Mattiwilda Dobbs.
CD 6 Bizet, Massenet, Halévy, Méhul [70:13]
The opening track is the wonderful romance from Les pêcheurs
de perles that was made famous in the early 1930s by Beniamino Gigli’s
recording. It was frequently played on the radio in my youth. When I bought
my first record player I also pretty soon added that recording to my collection.
Gigli sang it in Italian, and however mellifluously he performed it, he
tended to make it too tearful. Then I heard Gedda’s recording, made
in the early 1960s, and found that it was the real thing. It is still
my preferred version but Simoneau’s DG-recording heard here is up
there on the Helicon too.
Three operas by Massenet follow. Le Cid would seem to be too heavy
for Simoneau, but O souverain suits him surprisingly well. More
his cup of tea should be Des Grieux in Manon, and he sings both
arias wonderfully. His wife amply demonstrates that the title role could
have been written for her in the two duets. Le jongleur de Notre Dame,
premiered in 1902, is not completely forgotten. It was written for a cast
of only male characters, bar a couple of angels. In 1908 the Scottish
soprano Mary Garden adopted the role, something that is said to have horrified
the composer. Leopold Simoneau in the interview is of the same opinion:
this role should be sung by a tenor. The aria Mais renoncer …
Liberté, confirms this - but I still have a soft spot for Mary
Garden’s recording also.
Halévy’s La juive gets an outing once in a while.
The Vienna State Opera did it about a decade ago. It was played earlier
this year (2013) in Dresden, St Petersburg and Vilnius and Gothenburg
will mount it in the spring of 2014. For Méhul’s Joseph
there were no hits at all on Operabase. The aria Rachel, quand du Seigneur
from the former work is not completely unknown. The role of Eléazar
was Caruso’s last new role at the Met in 1919. It was also the last
role he sang before his untimely death in 1921. Simoneau was no Caruso
but he approaches the role from his own requirements and the outcome is
touching. Champs paternels from Joseph is closer to his
temperament and this is one of his finest recordings.
Finally three excerpts from the complete recording of Carmen, set
down in 1959 for Concert Hall. This was only my second complete opera
on LP. I played it innumerable times for many years and continued to do
so until I some years ago deported my LP collection to an outhouse. Two
years ago I found a CD transfer of it so now I can again savour the most
poetic Don José. His Flower Song is superb, some strain apart,
and he obeys all the instructions in the score. In the first act duet
with Micaèla, he is partnered by Pierrette Alarie and she is plainly
the best on any recording. The final scene, where he kills Carmen, is
a testing piece for a lyric tenor but his medium-sized voice doesn’t
exclude dramatic intensity and the Spanish mezzo-soprano Consuelo Rubio
is a worthy adversary. For these excerpts you need to turn up the volume
quite a bit.
CD 7 Donizetti, Cimarosa, Rossini, Verdi, Cilea, Puccini [61:54]
The repertoires of Leopold Simoneau and Alfredo Kraus were largely identical.
Of the ten operas represented on this disc only Matrimonio segreto,
L’Arlesiana and Tosca were not in Kraus’s stage
repertoire. I doubt that it was in Simoneau’s either, though his
E lucevan le stelle as an isolated solo piece is very attractive
with beautiful shadings and suitably plaintive tone. The Cilea ariaE
la solita storia is also well sung here. The opera as a whole is a
rarity today and there exists only one complete recording, as far as I
know, set down as long ago as 1955 by Cetra with Ferruccio Tagliavini
and Pia Tassinari in the leading roles.
In Donizetti Simoneau’s elegance and nuanced delivery is a strong
asset and in the Lucia scene Pierrette Alarie is excellent. Cimarosa’s
Il matrimonio segreto was enthusiastically received at the premiere,
so enthusiastically that it had to be reprised the same evening. I first
got acquainted with the work through the early Cetra recording with Cesare
Valletti as Paolino. The sound was execrable but the singing so good that
I managed to listen to it anyway. Simoneau’s tone is brighter than
Valletti’s but both singers were true bel canto artists.
This excerpt also treats us to Pierrette Alarie’s delicious Paolina,
easier on the ear than Cetra’s Alda Noni, who was still a worthy
interpreter.
In Ecco ridente from Il barbiere di Siviglia he has to give
way to Luigi Alva - at least the Alva of the EMI recording with Callas
and Gobbi from 1957. This doesn’t mean that he is in any way bad.
Four excerpts from La traviata follow. The tenor aria is from the
DG sessions in 1957, the other three from 1953. In two of them he is partnered
for once not by his wife but by Maria Morales, a name hitherto unknown
to me. She was born in Madrid in 1929 and thus was only 24 when these
recordings were made. It seems though that she retired the following year.
From what I hear in these two excerpts she might have had an important
career if she had continued singing. In Parigi, o cara Pierrette
Alarie is back again, which she also is in the Gilda - Duke scene from
act I of Rigoletto. Simoneau also sings Ella mi fu rapita ...
Parmi veder excellently. O soave fanciulla from La bohème
with Alarie is also a worthy inclusion, even though Alarie was a Musetta
more than a Mimi.
CD 8 von Flotow, Mozart, Méhul, Donizetti, Verdi, Thomas, Massenet,
Bizet [68:39]
This disc seems to involve some mopping up of odd tracks from diverse
sources but on closer scrutiny is far from that. The duet from Die
Entführung aus dem Serail is the remaining item from the Concert
Hall LP mentioned before. The Bildnis aria from Die Zauberflöte
is from a French 1955 recording, from which we have had at least one number
before. The concluding three excerpts from Les pêcheurs des perles
are from the highly acclaimed complete recording from 1953, with Pierrette
Alarie as Leila and the fine baritone René Bianco as Zurga. This
is wholly delectable singing and I suspect that many readers having heard
these tracks will want to acquire the complete recording. The remainder
of the tracks are from what could be labelled a ‘cover’ LP
to the DG LP from 1957 with French and Italian arias, but now sung in
German. Back in the 1950s it was quite common to record one LP or EP for
the international market in the original languages and one for the domestic
market, sung in German. The aria from Martha, sung in the original
German, was common to both LPs. The rest of the arias sung in German are
all here, bar the one from La Juive. It could easily have been
included on the disc, since the playing time is only 69 minutes. German
is no easy language to sing and achieve the same legato and elegance as
in French and Italian, but I think Simoneau manages quite well.
CD 9 Berlioz and Duparc [55:43]
No more opera on the remaining discs. CD 9 opens with Sanctus from
Berlioz’s Grande messe des morts from a live performance
during the Salzburg Festival in 1956, Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Simoneau later - in 1959 - recorded the
work under studio conditions for RCA with the Boston Symphony and Charles
Munch, another highly acclaimed recording. The sound from Salzburg is
more primitive but Simoneau sings marvellously and the orchestral playing
cannot be faulted. The female voices of the chorus initially sound a bit
wayward, but later on they are OK and towards the end truly angelic.
The rest of the disc offers no fewer than eleven songs by Henri Duparc,
the first four with orchestra, recorded in Cologne in 1957 and the seven
others with piano in a studio recording from 1956 for Westminster. The
complete disc is available on Forgotten Records. Simoneau was a master
also in French mélodie repertoire.
CD 10 Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Rameau, Duparc, Fauré [72:56]
This disc opens with two of Mozart’s concert arias, which both were
included in the afore-mentioned Concert Hall LP, but here they are instead
presented from the same Cologne sessions as the four Duparc songs with
orchestra on CD 9.
Then we return to Salzburg and a song recital on 14 August 1959 with Erik
Werba at the piano. Three Haydn songs are followed by three arias by Handel.
Rameau’s cantata L’impatience takes 11 minutes and
then there is more Duparc, but only Chanson triste is duplicated
from CD 9, and there it was sung with orchestra.
Three of Gabriel Fauré’s loveliest songs round off the evening
- and this magnificent tribute to one of the last century’s finest
lyric tenors. ‘The Ultimate Collection’? Well, you can’t
go wrong when buying this box. Jens Malte Fischer once wrote in the Süddeutsche
Zeitung about an earlier CD release: ‘... if Simoneau is featured,
buy it without listening!’ I endorse that. Some of the live recordings
are rather murky, but this is compensated by the superb singing of the
tenor. Buy it without listening.
Göran Forsling
A magnificent tribute to one of the last century’s finest lyric
tenors.
Full contents list
CD 1
Orfeo ed Eurydice: Quel nouveau ciel par ces lieux / J'ai perdu mon Eurydice
(GLUCK); Iphigenie en Tauride: Quel langage / Unie des la plus tendre
enfance / Ah! mon ami / Divinité des grandes âmes (GLUCK);
Idomeneo: Qual mi conturba I sensi / Fuor del mar / Ah non sarebbe il
viver mio / Non temer amato bene / Principessa ai tuoi sguardi / Spiegarti
non poss` io / Torna la pace al core (MOZART); La Clemenza di Tito: Se
all'impero / Ah se fosse intorno al trono / Come ti piace imponi (MOZART)
CD 2
Die Zauberflöte: Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön / Tamino
mein! - Pamina mein! / Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schon / Zum Ziele fuhrt
dich diese Bahn / Die Weisheitslehre dieser Knaben / O ew'ge Nacht / Wie
stark ist nicht dein Zauberton / Soll ich dich Teurer nicht mehr seh'n
/ Mich schreckt kein Tod / Tamino mein! (MOZART); Die Entführung
aus dem Serail: Hier soll ich dich denn sehen Konstanze / Konstanze dich
wiederzusehen / Ach Belmonte ach mein Leben / Wenn der Freude Tranen fliessen
/ Welch ein Geschick / Ich baue ganz auf deine Starke (MOZART)
CD 3
Don Giovanni: Dalla sua pace / Il mio tesoro intanto / Ma qual mai s'offre
oh Dei / Fuggi crudele fuggi / No ti fidar o misera / Come mai creder
deggio / Dalla sua pace / Protegga il giusto cielo / Riposate vezzose
regazze / Sola sola in buio loco / Ferma perfido ferma / Il mio tesoro
intanto / Ah dove e il perfido / Dalla sua pace / Il mio tesoro intanto
(MOZART)
CD 4
Cosi Fan Tutte: Un'aura amorosa del nostro tesoro / Fra gli amplessi in
pochi istanti / La mia Dorabella / E la fede delle femmine / Una bella
serenata / Sento oddio che questo piede / Un'aura amorosa / Secondate
aurette amiche / Amico abbiamo vinto! / Donne mie la fate a tanti / Tradito
schernito / Bravo questa e costanza / Fra gli amplessi (MOZART); La Finta
Giardiniera: Tu mi lasci (MOZART); Oiseaux si tous les ans K307. An Chloe
K524. Abendempfindung K523 (MOZART)
CD 5
Mignon: Adieu Mignon! Courage! / Elle ne croyait pas (THOMAS); Faust:
Il se fait tard adieu (GOUNOD); Mireille: La brise est douce (GOUNOD);
Romeo et Juliette: O nuit divine! Je t'implore / Va! je t'ai pardonné
(GOUNOD); Le Roi d'Ys: Vainement ma bien aimée (LALO); Lakmé:
Prendre le dessin d'un bijou / Fantaisie aux divins / D'ou viens-tu? /
C'est le dieu de la jeunesse / Tu m'as donné le plus doux rêve
/ Lakmé! Lakmé! C'est toi / Dans la forêt près
de nous (DELIBES); Les Contes d'Hoffman: Va pour Kleinzach! / Il était
une fois a la cour d'Eisenach / Elle est là / C'est elle! Elle
sommeille! / Malheureux tu ne comprends donc pas / O Dieu de quelle ivresse
/ C'est une chanson d'amour (OFFENBACH)
CD 6
The Pearl Fishers: A cette voix quel trouble / Je crois entendre encore
(BIZET); Le Cid: O souverain o juge o père (MASSENET); Manon: J'ai
marque l'heure du départ / Instant charmant / Et je sais votre
nom / Je suis seul / Ah! fuyez douce image (MASSENET); Les Jongleur de
Notre Dame: Mais renoncer ... Liberté (MASSENET); La Juive: Rachel
quand du Seigneur la grace tutelaire (HALEVY); Joseph: Vainement Pharaon
/ Champs paternels (MEHUL); Carmen: Parlez-moi de ma mère / La
fleur que tu m'avais jetée / L'on m'avait avertie (BIZET)
CD 7
L'Elisir d'Amore: Una furtiva lagrima (DONIZETTI); Don Pasquale: Come
gentile (DONIZETTI); Lucia di Lammermoor: Sulla tomba (DONIZETTI); Il
Matrimonio Segreto: Cara non dubitar (CIMAROSA); Il Barbiere di Siviglia:
Ecco ridente in cielo (ROSSINI); La Traviata: Un di felice eterea / Lunge
da lei / De'miei bollenti spiriti / Che fai? - Nulla / Parigi o cara (VERDI);
Rigoletto: Ella mi fu rapita / Parmi veder le lagrime / Signor ne principe
io lo vorrei / E il sol dell'anima (VERDI); L'Arlesiana: E la solita storia
del pastore (CILEA); La Boheme: O soave fanciulla (PUCCINI); Tosca: E
lucevan le stelle (PUCCINI)
CD 8
Martha: Ach so fromm ach so traut (FLOTOW); Die Entführung aus dem
Serail: Welch ein Geschick (MOZART); Die Zauberflote: Dies Bildnis ist
bezaubernd schon (MOZART); Joseph in Egypt: Ach mir lachelt umsonst huldvoll..../
O Vaterland (MEHUL); Der Lieberstrank: Wohl drang aus ihrem Herzen ein
Seufzer (DONIZETTI); La Traviata: Entfernt von ihr / Ach ihres Auges Zauberblick
(VERDI); Mignon: Gib` Kraft Mignon / Wie ihre Unschuld (THOMAS); Manon:
O schone Zeit / Ich schloss die Augen / Ich bin allein / Flieh o flieh
holdes Bild (MASSENET); The Pearl Fishers: C'est toi / Au fond du temple
saint / A cette voix / Je crois entendre encore / De mon amie / Leila!
Leila! Dieu puissant / Ton coeur n'a pas compris le mien (BIZET)
CD 9
Grande Messe des Morts op. 5: Sanctus (BERLIOZ); Phidylé: La vie
antérieure / L'invitation au voyage / Chanson triste / Testament
/ Sérénade florentine / La vague et la cloche / Lamento
/ Elégie / Sérénade / Au pays ou se fait la guerre
(DUPARC)
CD 10
Concert Arias - Per pieta non ricercate K420. Misero! o sogno! - Aura
che intorno K425b (MOZART); 6 English Kanzonette HobXXVIa: Genugsamkeit
/ She never told her love / Sailor's Song (HAYDN); Dettinger Te Deum:
Vouchsafe o Lord (HANDEL); Acis and Galathea: Would you gain the tender
creature / Love sounds th'alarm (HANDEL); L'Impatience (RAMEAU); Soupir.
Chanson triste. Extase. Le manoir de Rosemonde (DUPARC); Au cimetière
op. 51/2. Claire de lune op. 46/2. Poème D'un Jour op. 21 (FAURE)
recorded 1951-1959
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