Régine Crespin

Régine Crespin (23 February 1927 – 5 July 2007) was a French operatic dramatic soprano, later a mezzo-soprano, who excelled in both the French and German repertoire.

Early life

Crespin was born in Marseille. Her childhood was affected both by growing up during World War II and her mother's alcoholism. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/arts/music/06crespin.html?ex=1341374400&en=cd0bb8d36cf75e99&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss "The New York Times" "Régine Crespin, French Soprano, Dies at 80" 6 July. 2007] ]

She began taking singing lessons at the age of sixteen. After failing to pass her "Baccalauréat" but doing well in a singing competition, she went to Paris and studied at the Conservatoire. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/05/AR2007070501638.html AP via "Washington Post", "French Opera Great Crespin Dies at 80", July 5, 2007] ]

Career

She made her début in 1950 in Mulhouse as Elsa in "Lohengrin," and the same year appeared in that role in Paris. After her debut, she sang with the Paris Opera but in regional centres. Her big break was being chosen as Kundry in Parsifal at the 1958 Bayreuth Festival, despite the fact that she had not sung Wagner in German. To learn the role in German, she was coached by Lou Bruder, a professor of German literature who later became her husband.

Notable subsequent parts added to her repertoire were Cassandre and Didon in Berlioz' "Les Troyens"; "Carmen"; Fauré's "Pénélope"; Gluck's "Iphigénie en Tauride"; Charlotte in Massenet's "Werther"; Offenbach's "La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein"; Madame Lidoine and Madame de Croissy in Poulenc's "Dialogues des Carmélites"; "Tosca"; the Countess in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades; Kundry in Wagner's "Parsifal", and Sieglinde and Brünnhilde in his "Die Walküre". Above all, perhaps, she was loved for her Marschallin in Richard Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier".

Régine Crespin and Lou Bruder divorced after 11 years. Ms. Crespin had no children. She retired from singing in 1989, but continued to teach until her death of liver cancer in Paris in 2007.

Recordings

Her classic recording of Berlioz's "Les nuits d'été" and Ravel’s "Shéhérazade" with Ernest Ansermet and the Suisse Romande Orchestra is regarded by many as the finest of all versions on disc. Among her other important recordings were Sieglinde in "Die Walküre", and the Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier", both for Decca with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Sir Georg Solti. She also assumed the role of Brünnhilde on Herbert von Karajan's recording of "Die Walküre" with the Berlin Philharmonic recently re-released by Deutsche Grammophon as part of its "The Originals" series.

Memoirs

Her memoirs, "La vie et l'amour d'une femme" (the French name for Schumann's song cycle "Frauenliebe und -leben") are quite candid, providing much detail of the singer’s private life as well as unusual insights into her professional world. It was first published in French in 1982 and was republished in an expanded English version called "On Stage, Off Stage: A Memoire" in 1997. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/05/AR2007070501638.html "Washington Post", "French Opera Great Crespin Dies at 80" July 5, 2007] ]

References

Trivia

* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wesendoncklieder To hear sound samples of her Wesendonck Lieder recording]