Martial
Singher
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Conductor: Paul Breisach Recorded
in 1945
Released as Columbia Masterworks Set M-578 (71678-D - 71681-D)
Duration 32'40"
Lully
- Amadis - Bois
epais, redouble ton ombre
Gretry
- Richard, Coeur de Lion - Blondel's
Air
Berlioz
- The Damnation of Faust - Mephistopheles'
Air
Berlioz
- The Damnation of Faust - Serenade
Berlioz
- The Damnation of Faust - Song
of the Flea
Gounod
- Romeo et Juliette - Ballad
of Queen Mab
Thomas
- Hamlet - Chanson
Bachique
Massenet
- Herodiade - Vision
Fugitive
Offenbach
- Tales of Hoffmann - Scintille
diamant
Bizet
- Carmen - Toreador
Song
Play
Serenade:
This
wonderful recording takes us from one of the earliest operas ever written
in French, Lully's 1684 "Amadis", through a host of the highlights
of French opera, ending up with perhaps one of the most famous arias of
all time, the Toreador Song from Bizet's Carmen.
Not only
is the sound quality superb from these 78rpm discs and a joy to restore,
but the singing is marvellous throughout and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
lives up to its high reputation. This really is a recording to savour
over and over again!
Martial
Singher (above):14th August 1904 - 9 March 1990.
After graduating
from the Univeristy of Toulouse, Martial Singher went to Paris intending
to become a professor of French literature! It was in Paris that he discovered
his fine Baritone voice, and thus instead Singher studied singing at the
Paris Conservatoire with bass André Gresse. His operatic debut
was in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride in November 1930 at
the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam under Pierre Monteux. His official Paris
Opéra debut was as Athanaël in Thaïs the following
month. His big break occurred when he replaced Vanni Marcoux in 1931 as
Iago in Otello, which led to an Opéra contract as a leading
baritone which he held for nearly a decade.
He fled
occupied France for the United States on a visitors visa en route
to South America in 1940 and in the same year he married Margareta (Eta)
Rut Busch, the daughter of the conductor Fritz Busch. He returned to the
Colón in 1942 and 1943, and then sang 162 performances with the
Metropolitan Opera. He taught at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia,
and Mannes College of Music in New York. Singher succeeded Lotte Lehmann
as the Director of Voice and Opera at Santa Barbaras Music Academy
of the West from 1962 to 1981.