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Some of the Very Best of Régine Crespin over 24 Years

Andre Gauthier | 10/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard the great French soprano Régine Crespin in a fantastic recital of French music in the mid 1960s. She sang in a very large hall, and swamped the entire place with a tone that is now just a memory, since no one else these days can do what she did with that instrument. I then heard Nilsson and Rysanek soon thereafter, thus completing a trio of great sopranos who dominated much of the same repertoire from the 1950s to the 1980s. Crespin's voice in person was at times like a great search light roaming from one side of the stage to the other while holding a single note. How I do miss her! Régine Crespin's collection of scenes is called "Sur Scène" and is found on a label called Prima Music. (For some reason the label is called "Buda Musique" by [...] but that's found no where on the set.) It is a two CD set. This is all broadcast and pirate recordings and the sound is quite variable. That doesn't matter in the least to me. The recordings range from 1954 with "Otello"; '56 "Cosi Fan tutte"; a light and gleaming "Porgi Amor" (if this singer could ever be thought of as "light") from "Nozze de Figaro". We jump to 1959 to "Pénélope" of Fauré with Raoul Jobin and by the next year we're in Bayreuth with her first Kundry from "Parsifal". That in itself is quite a stretch in terms of repertoire, but is followed by Senta's aria from "Holländer" in 1962 and a '63 Marschellin's monologue from "Rosenkavelier". In 1964 we are served up several moments from Fidelio, one being the "Komm Hoffnung" and the "Oh, namenlose Freude" with Wilhelm Presbyl. The second CD contains 3 moments from "Iphigénie en Tauride". In 1965 we get the Werther, Charlotte duet with Albert Lance; then comes one of the set's tours de force. The duet from "Ballo in Mascera" with Franco Corelli Is about as fine a rendering as is possible to accomplish. The two are in prime voice in '65 and they pull out all the stops. What a thrill. We get "Vissi d'arte" from 1968 with Ferdinand Leitner conducting, and then "Mario, Mario" with Zubin Mehta from the same year. Also from 1968 we have the Gioconda-Laura duet from "La Gioconda" with Michele Vilma and the final scene joined by Carlo Cosutta. The last moment documented on CD 2 is the final scene from "Carmen" with Guy Chauvet from 1978, ten years after the previous selections. Little has changed except for a slightly darker color of the voice.

Everything here might be found on full recordings, but you don't have to wait for the big moments with these CDs. They're all right here ready to audition. It makes me long for a lot of the full operas, and my Crespin collection will be getting a lot bigger after hearing how utterly wonderful she is. I do have a great Berlioz "Damnation of Faust" from 1958, and she is the greatest Marguerite in that concert/opera that I can recall. She is utterly feminine and able to be as dramatic as any other soprano of her day. What a shame that no one like her is singing today. A great buy!!



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