Hugues Cuénod
Encyclopedia
Hugues-Adhémar Cuénod (26 June 19026 December 2010) was a Swiss tenor
known for his performances in opera, operetta, both traditional and musical theatre, and on the concert stage, where he was particularly known for his light, romantic and expressive interpretation of mélodie
(French art song
). His repertoire encompassed everything from the medieval chansons of Guillaume de Machaut
to the avant garde works of Igor Stravinsky
. He had an extraordinarily long career of over 64 years: he gave his first concert in 1928 and his last in 1992 when he was aged 90, hence breaking the record for the longest career as a professional vocalist.
, Cuénod received his training at the Ribaupierre Institute in Lausanne
, at the conservatories in Geneva
and Basel
, and in Vienna
. He started his career as a concert singer. In 1928, he made his stage debut in Ernst Krenek
's Jonny spielt auf
in Paris, and in 1929 he sang for the first time in the United States in Noël Coward
's Bitter Sweet
. From 1930 to 1933 he was active in Geneva, and then in Paris from 1934 to 1937. During the seasons 1937 to 1939, he made an extensive concert tour of North America. From 1940 to 1946 he taught at the Geneva Conservatory
. In 1943 he resumed his operatic career singing in Johann Strauss II
's Die Fledermaus
in Geneva. He subsequently sang at Milan's La Scala
(1951), the Glyndebourne Festival
(from 1954 on) and London's Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden (1954, 1956 and 1958).
Cuénod was known for his roles as Basilio in Mozart
's The Marriage of Figaro
, the Astrologer in Rimsky-Korsakov
's The Golden Cockerel
, and Sellem in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
. In pre-war Vienna and Paris, he frequented aristocratic salons
and worked with Nadia Boulanger
; after the war, the new early-music boom relied heavily on his light, unmannered, natural sound.
He holds the record as the oldest person to make a debut at the Metropolitan Opera
. He debuted as the Emperor Altoum in Puccini
's Turandot
on 12 March 1987 at the age of 84. He repeated the role the following season for a total of 14 performances.
His very last appearance on stage was in 1992, aged 90, when he sang M. Triquet in Tchaikovsky
's Eugene Onegin
at the Théâtre du Jorat in Mézières
.
region of Switzerland. They lived in the Le Château de Lully, an 18th-century castle that belonged to his ancestors. In June 2007, when Cuénod was 105, he and Augustin entered into a civil union after changes in Swiss law gave same-sex couples many of the legal benefits of marriage.
He turned 108 on 26 June 2010 and died in Vevey
on the following 6 December.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
known for his performances in opera, operetta, both traditional and musical theatre, and on the concert stage, where he was particularly known for his light, romantic and expressive interpretation of mélodie
Mélodie
Mélodie refers to French art songs of the mid-19th century to the present; it is the French equivalent of the German Lied. It is distinguished from a chanson, which is a folk or popular song.-Nature of the mélodie:...
(French art song
Art song
An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
). His repertoire encompassed everything from the medieval chansons of Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut was a Medieval French poet and composer. He is one of the earliest composers on whom significant biographical information is available....
to the avant garde works of Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
. He had an extraordinarily long career of over 64 years: he gave his first concert in 1928 and his last in 1992 when he was aged 90, hence breaking the record for the longest career as a professional vocalist.
Career
Born in Corseaux-sur-VeveyCorseaux
Corseaux is a municipality in the district Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.-Geography:Corseaux has an area, , of . Of this area, or 21.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 0.0% is forested...
, Cuénod received his training at the Ribaupierre Institute in Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
, at the conservatories in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
and Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, and in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. He started his career as a concert singer. In 1928, he made his stage debut in Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...
's Jonny spielt auf
Jonny spielt auf
Jonny spielt auf is an opera with words and music by Ernst Krenek about a jazz violinist. The work typified the cultural freedom of the 'golden era' of the Weimar Republic.-Performance history:...
in Paris, and in 1929 he sang for the first time in the United States in Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet is an operetta in three acts written by Noël Coward and first produced in 1929 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. It ran for a very successful 967 performances....
. From 1930 to 1933 he was active in Geneva, and then in Paris from 1934 to 1937. During the seasons 1937 to 1939, he made an extensive concert tour of North America. From 1940 to 1946 he taught at the Geneva Conservatory
Conservatoire de musique de Genève
The Conservatoire de musique de Genève is a music school in Geneva, Switzerland.Founded by François Bartholoni in 1835. This conservatory is the oldest music education institution in Switzerland and one of the oldest conservatory in Europe. Franz Liszt has taught at this conservatory during the...
. In 1943 he resumed his operatic career singing in Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
in Geneva. He subsequently sang at Milan's La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
(1951), the Glyndebourne Festival
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...
(from 1954 on) and London's Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden (1954, 1956 and 1958).
Cuénod was known for his roles as Basilio in Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, the Astrologer in Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
's The Golden Cockerel
The Golden Cockerel
The Golden Cockerel is an opera in three acts, with short prologue and even shorter epilogue, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Its libretto, by Vladimir Belsky, derives from Alexander Pushkin's 1834 poem The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, which in turn is based on two chapters of Tales of the Alhambra by...
, and Sellem in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress is an opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on May 2, 1947, in a Chicago...
. In pre-war Vienna and Paris, he frequented aristocratic salons
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
and worked with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
; after the war, the new early-music boom relied heavily on his light, unmannered, natural sound.
He holds the record as the oldest person to make a debut at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
. He debuted as the Emperor Altoum in Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
on 12 March 1987 at the age of 84. He repeated the role the following season for a total of 14 performances.
His very last appearance on stage was in 1992, aged 90, when he sang M. Triquet in Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
at the Théâtre du Jorat in Mézières
Mézières, Vaud
Mézières is a municipality in the district of Lavaux-Oron in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.-Geography:Mézières has an area, , of . Of this area, or 61.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 23.3% is forested...
.
Personal life
Cuénod resided with his life partner, Alfred Augustin (41 years his junior), in the VaudVaud
Vaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,...
region of Switzerland. They lived in the Le Château de Lully, an 18th-century castle that belonged to his ancestors. In June 2007, when Cuénod was 105, he and Augustin entered into a civil union after changes in Swiss law gave same-sex couples many of the legal benefits of marriage.
He turned 108 on 26 June 2010 and died in Vevey
Vevey
Vevey is a town in Switzerland in the canton Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne.It was the seat of the district of the same name until 2006, and is now part of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District...
on the following 6 December.
Sources
- Nicolas Slonimsky et al., Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians, Schirmer Books, 1997. ISBN 0028712714
- Bradley S. Klapper, Tenor Cuénod, 105, Credits Small Voice, Associated Press, 25 June 2007. Retrieved on 14 February 2008.
- Profile from the Lotte Lehmann Foundation (includes a one-hour Internet radio program focusing on Cuénod)
Further reading
- Hugues Cuénod With an Agile Voice: Conversations With François Hudry, translated by Albert Fuller, Pendragon Press, 1999. ISBN 9781576470299
- Jérôme Spycket, Un diable de musicien: Hugues Cuénod, Payot, 1979. ISBN 260100388X