Episode 394. Valletti Revisited (French Edition)

Episode 394. Valletti Revisited (French Edition)

More than two years and nearly two hundred episodes ago, I published an episode on the great Italian tenore di grazia Cesare Valletti. Today I revisit his recorded legacy, focusing on his prowess in the French repertoire, both in opera and, rather uncharacteristically for an Italian tenor of the era, mélodie. Not only do I present the complete 1965 LP entitled Cesare Valletti Sings French Art Songs, which was his final release on the RCA Victor label, but I supplement that with two fantabulous death scenes from two of Jules Massenet’s most popular operas, Manon (a live 1954 recording pairing Valletti with Victoria de los Angeles at her most memorable), and Werther (a 1962 studio recording of excerpts from the opera featuring Rosalind Elias, the dearly beloved mezzo-soprano of blessed memory.) Valletti once again reveals himself an artist of refined taste, as well as (in the operatic excerpts) a surprisingly powerful and forthright vocal present and (in the song repertoire) an interpreter with superb French diction and exquisite insight into the half-lit atmosphere of the genre.

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Jules Massenet, Henri Meilhac, Philippe Gille [after Abbé Prévost]: Tu pleures!… Ah! je sens une pure flamme (Manon). Cesare Valletti, Victoria de los Angeles, Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteux [live New York 18.XII.1954]

Gioachino Rossini, Andrea Leone Tottola [after Walter Scott]: O fiamma soave (La donna del lago). Tullio Serafin, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino [live Firenze, 09.V.58]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pietro Metastasio: Se Dio veder tu vuoi (La Betulia liberata). Mario Rossi, Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI [1954]

Francesco Cilea, Leopoldo Marenco [after Alphonse Daudet]: È la solita storia del pastore (L’Arlesiana). Bruno Rigacci, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della RAI [live Roma 04.XII.61]

Hector Berlioz, Théophile Gautier: Villanelle (Les nuits d’été, Op. 7/1). Leo Taubman [live Town Hall 16.X.58]

Cesare Valletti Sings French Art Songs (RCA Victor Records, 1965) accompanied by Leo Taubman

Gabriel Fauré: Four Songs:

• Romain Bussine: Après un rêve, Op. 7/1
• Victor Hugo: Dans les ruines d’une abbaye, Op. 2/1
• Armand Silvestre: Le secret, Op. 23/3
• Armand Silvestre: Automne, Op. 18/3

Three settings of Paul Verlaine’s poem “Clair de lune” by Gabriel Fauré (Op. 46/2), Joseph Szulc (Op. 83/1), and Claude Debussy (Fêtes galantes I, L. 45/3).

Claude Debussy: Four Songs

• Paul Bourget: Beau soir, L. 84
• Paul Verlaine: C’est l’extase (Ariettes oubliées, L. 63/1)
• Paul Bourget: Romance [L’âme évaporée et souffrante], L. 65/2
• Paul Verlaine: Mandoline, L. 43

Henri Duparc: Five Songs

• Jean Lahor [né Henri Cazalis]: Chanson triste
• Jean Lahor [né Henri Cazalis]: Extase
• Charles Baudelaire: L’invitation au voyage
• Leconte de Lisle: Phidylé
• Robert de Bonnières: Le manoir de Rosemonde

Reynaldo Hahn: Four Songs

• Victor Hugo: Si mes vers avaient des ailes
• Victor Hugo: Rêverie
• Paul Verlaine: D’une prison
• André Theuriet: Paysage

Hector Berlioz, Théophile Gautier: L’île inconnue (Les nuits d’été, Op. 7/6). Leo Taubman [live Town Hall 16.X.58]

Jules Massenet, Édouard Blau, Georges Hartmann, Paul Milliet [after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]: Te pardonner! Quand c’est moi qui te frappe… Là-bas au fond du cimetière (Werther). Cesare Valletti, Rosalind Elias, René Leibowitz, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma [1962]