Episode 448. Get to Know Germaine Cernay
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Today’s featured artist is, I hope, a name that some of you will at least have heard of: the French mezzo-soprano Germaine Cernay, born Germaine Pointu in Le Havre in 1900 and died tragically young of an epileptic event at the age of only 43. Here is an artist who strikes a balance between poise and white heat, with a voice of exquisite timbre anchored by a flawless technique. Between making her debut at the Opéra-Comique in 1927 and her early retirement from her singing career the year before her death with the intention of becoming a nun, Cernay was a prodigious recording artist and a habituée of both the operatic stage and the concert platform. Today’s episode presents her in her core operatic repertoire (Debussy, Fauré, Mascagni, Bizet, and Saint-Saëns), with a strong emphasis on the works of Jules Massenet (Werther, Don Quichotte, Thérèse, Le Cid, Hérodiade, Sapho). Cernay is also heard at the outer edges of the mélodie repertoire, singing songs by Charles Bordes, Xavier Leroux, and Georges Dandelot, alongside the more familiar Lalo, Chabrier, and Brahms, not to forget a smattering of operetta. Some of her strongest recordings feature stellar contributions by fellow singers Georges Thill, André d’Arkor, Roger Bourdin, and Charles Friant. In recent years, even without a sytstematic reissue of her recorded oeuvre, her reputation has only increased, and she is now recognized as a standard-bearer of the French mezzo-soprano repertoire.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Jules Massenet, Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet, Georges Hartmann [after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]: Va! Laisse couler mes larmes (Werther). Germaine Cernay, Orchestra conducted by Gustave Cloëz [1928]
Jules Massenet, Paul Milliet, Henri Grémont [after Gustave Flaubert]: Hérode! Ne me refuse pas (Hérodiade). Germaine Cernay, unknown orchestra and conductor [1930]
Jules Massenet, Adolphe d’Ennery, Louis Gallet, Édouard Blau [after Pierre Corneille]: Pleurez, mes yeux (Le Cid). Germaine Cernay, Orchestra conducted by Gustave Cloëz [1930]
Gabriel Fauré, René Fauchois [after Homer]: Vous n’avez fait qu’éveiller dans mon sein (Pénélope). Germaine Cernay, Orchestra conducted by Gustave Cloëz [1932]
Georges Bizet, Henri Meilhac, Ludovic Halévy [after Prosper Mérimée]: Je ne te parle pas… Près des remparts de Séville (Carmen). Germaine Cernay, Charles Friant, unknown conductor [1928]
Pietro Mascagni, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, Guido Menasci [after Giovanni Verga; French version by Paul Milliet]: Commère Santa, dès lors je vous rends grâce… Avec leur perfidie [Comare Santa, allor grato vi sono… Ad essi non perdono] (Cavalleria rusticana). Germaine Cernay, Arthur Endrèze, Orchestra conducted by Gustave Cloëz [1933]
Claude Debussy, Maurice Maeterlinck: Voici ce qu’il écrit à son frère Pelléas (Pelléas et Mélisande). Germaine Cernay, Orchestra conducted by Gustave Cloëz [1928]
Franz Lehár, Robert de Flers, Gaston Arman de Caillavet [after Henri Meilhac, Victor Léon, Leo Stein]: Je ne connais votre Paris [Hab in Paris mich noch nicht ganz] (La veuve joyeuse [Die lustige Witwe]). Germaine Cernay, Paul Minssart, Orchestre du Théâtre Lyrique de la Gaité [1933]
Gabriel Fauré: Salve Regina. Germaine Cernay, Orchestra conducted by Francis Cebron [1942]
Emmanuel Chabrier, Rosemonde Gérard: Les cigales. Germaine Cernay, Jean Ibos Quintet [unknown date]
Charles Bordes, Paul Verlaine: Colloque sentimental. Germaine Cernay, Jean Ibos Quintet [1930s, unknown date]
Georges Dandelot, Pierre Louÿs: Scène (Chansons de Bilitis). Germaine Cernay, Georges Dandelot [1939]
Édouard Lalo, André Theuriet: Marine, Op. 33. Germaine Cernay, Orchestra conducted by Eugène Bigot [1934]
Johannes Brahms, Friedrich Rückert: Gestillte Sehnsucht, Op. 91/1 [sung in French as “Désir apaisé”]. Germaine Cernay, Henri Benoit, Lucette Descaves-Truc [1942]
Jules Massenet, Henri Caïn, Arthur Bernède [after Alphonse Daudet]: Petit, voici ta lampe [Air de la lampe] (Sapho). Germaine Cernay, unknown orchestra and conductor [1928]
Jules Massenet, Jules Claretie: Jour de juin, jour d’été (Thérèse). Germaine Cernay, Orchestra conducted by Gustave Cloëz [1930]
Jules Massenet, Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet, Georges Hartmann [after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]: Ah, mon courage m’abandonne! Seigneur Dieu! (Werther). Germaine Cernay, Orchestra conducted by Gustave Cloëz [1928]
Jules Massenet, Henri Caïn [after Jacques Le Lorrain]: Me marier, moi!… Oui, je souffre votre tristesse (Don Quichotte). Germaine Cernay, Roger Bourdin, Orchestra conducted by Gustave Cloëz [1931]
Ambroise Thomas, Jules Barbier, Michel Carré [after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Où suis-je?… Je suis heureuse (Mignon). Germaine Cernay, André d’Arkor, Orchestra conducted by Maurice Bastin [1928]
Camille Saint-Saëns, Ferdinand Lemaire: Un dieu plus puissant que le tien… Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix (Samson et Dalila). Germaine Cernay, Georges Thill, Orchestra conducted by Eugène Bigot [1933]
Xavier Leroux, Armand Renaud, orchestrated Henri Büsser: Le Nil (La Solitaire, No. 3). Germaine Cernay, Orchestra conducted by Gustave Cloëz [1934]
