Mady Mesplé
Encyclopedia
Mady Mesplé is a French opera
singer, the leading high coloratura
soprano
of her generation in France, sometimes heralded as the successor to Mado Robin
.
, France, and studied piano and voice at the music conservatory of her native city, graduating with a gold medal. She played the piano in a local ballroom orchestra for a while, and later left for Paris for complementary voice lessons with French soprano Janine Micheau
.
Mesplé made her professional debut in Liège
in January 1953, as Lakmé
, a role with which she remained closely associated throughout her career, singing it an estimated 145 times. Lakmé was also her debut role at La Monnaie
in Brussels in 1954. She quickly established herself in the standard lyric and coloratura roles of the French repertoire, such as Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann
, Philline in Mignon
, Leila in Les pêcheurs de perles
, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette
, Ophélie in Hamlet
, Dinorah
, Manon
, Sophie in Werther
, etc.
She made her debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
in 1956, as Zémire in Grétry
's Zémire et Azor
. The same year saw her debut at the Opéra-Comique
as Lakmé. Her Palais Garnier
debut took place in 1958, as Constance in Francis Poulenc
's Dialogues des Carmélites. Full consecration came at that opera house, in 1960, when she took over from Joan Sutherland
in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor
. Other Italian roles included Amina in La Sonnambula
, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Norina in Don Pasquale
, Gilda in Rigoletto
. She also sang a few German roles with success, notably the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier
, and a much-acclaimed Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos
in Aix-en-Provence in 1966.
Mesplé also enjoyed a successful career abroad, appearing at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the Royal Opera House
in London, La Scala
in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera
in New York and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
During the 1960s, Mesplé appeared frequently on French television and started exploring works by contemporary musicians. Charles Chaynes composed his Four Poems of Sappho for her, and in 1963 she premiered Gian Carlo Menotti
's French version of his opera The Last Savage. She was also the first to sing the French version of Hans Werner Henze
's Elegy for Young Lovers in 1965, and Pierre Boulez
chose Mesplé for his performances of Arnold Schoenberg
's Jacob's Ladder.
During the 1970s she added operettas to her repertoire, especially by Jacques Offenbach
, such as La Vie Parisienne
, Orphée aux enfers, and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
, opposite Régine Crespin
.
Mesplé retired from the stage in 1985 and turned to teaching at L'École Normale de Musique in Paris and at the Music Conservatory of Lyon. She also gave master classes and acted as judge in many voice competitions around the world.
Mesplé left an impressive discography, encompassing recitals of opera, operetta, and melodies, complete opera and operetta recordings, some of rarely performed works such as Auber
's Fra Diavolo
and Manon Lescaut
, Charles Lecocq's La fille de Madame Angot
, Robert Planquette
's Les cloches de Corneville
, Louis Ganne
's Les saltimbanques
, André Messager
's Véronique
, Reynaldo Hahn
's Ciboulette
, etc. However, it is her recording of Lakmé, opposite Charles Burles
and Roger Soyer
, under Alain Lombard
, that will forever be remembered.
The archetype of the light French coloratura soprano, Mady Mesplé was noted for her technical security, her musical refinement, as well as her charming stage presence. Her voice was particularly recognisable for its quick vibrato, intensely focused intonation, the instrumental-like quality of her runs and an amazing upper register extending easily to high A-flat.
On July 14, 2011, she became Commandeur of the Legion of Honor.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer, the leading high coloratura
Coloratura
Coloratura has several meanings. The word is originally from Italian, literally meaning "coloring", and derives from the Latin word colorare . When used in English, the term specifically refers to elaborate melody, particularly in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and...
soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
of her generation in France, sometimes heralded as the successor to Mado Robin
Mado Robin
Madeleine Marie Robin, known as Mado Robin , was a French coloratura soprano.She was born in Yzeures-sur-Creuse, Touraine, where she owned the Château Les Vallées. A star of television and radio in the 1950s, she was well known in France...
.
Biography
Mady Mesplé was born in ToulouseToulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, France, and studied piano and voice at the music conservatory of her native city, graduating with a gold medal. She played the piano in a local ballroom orchestra for a while, and later left for Paris for complementary voice lessons with French soprano Janine Micheau
Janine Micheau
Janine Micheau was a French singer, one of the leading lyric sopranos of her era in France.Janine Micheau was born in Toulouse, and studied voice at the Paris Conservatoire...
.
Mesplé made her professional debut in Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
in January 1953, as Lakmé
Lakmé
Lakmé is an opera in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille. Delibes wrote the score during 1881–82 with its first performance on 14 April 1883 at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Set in British India in the mid 19th century, Lakmé is based on the 1880 novel...
, a role with which she remained closely associated throughout her career, singing it an estimated 145 times. Lakmé was also her debut role at La Monnaie
La Monnaie
Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....
in Brussels in 1954. She quickly established herself in the standard lyric and coloratura roles of the French repertoire, such as Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann
Les contes d'Hoffmann
Les contes d'Hoffmann is an opéra by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on short stories by E. T. A...
, Philline in Mignon
Mignon
Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
, Leila in Les pêcheurs de perles
Les pêcheurs de perles
Les pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
, Ophélie in Hamlet
Hamlet (opera)
Hamlet is an opéra in five acts by the French composer Ambroise Thomas, with a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier based on a French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas, père and Paul Meurice of Shakespeare's play Hamlet.- Ophelia mania in Paris:...
, Dinorah
Dinorah
Dinorah, originally Le pardon de Ploërmel , is an 1859 French opéra comique in three acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré...
, Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, Sophie in Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
, etc.
She made her debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
Aix-en-Provence Festival
The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...
in 1956, as Zémire in Grétry
Grétry
People of the surname Grétry include* André Grétry , composer of opéras comiques;* Jeanne-Marie Grandon Grétry , painter, wife of André;...
's Zémire et Azor
Zémire et Azor
Zémire et Azor is an opéra comique, described as a comédie-ballet mêlée de chants et de danses, in four acts by the Belgian composer André Grétry, The French text was by Jean François Marmontel based on La Belle et la bête by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, and Amour pour amour by P. C....
. The same year saw her debut at the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
as Lakmé. Her Palais Garnier
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
debut took place in 1958, as Constance in Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
's Dialogues des Carmélites. Full consecration came at that opera house, in 1960, when she took over from Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
. Other Italian roles included Amina in La Sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Norina in Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
, Gilda in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
. She also sang a few German roles with success, notably the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, and a much-acclaimed Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
in Aix-en-Provence in 1966.
Mesplé also enjoyed a successful career abroad, appearing at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the 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...
in London, 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...
in Milan, 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...
in New York and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
During the 1960s, Mesplé appeared frequently on French television and started exploring works by contemporary musicians. Charles Chaynes composed his Four Poems of Sappho for her, and in 1963 she premiered Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
's French version of his opera The Last Savage. She was also the first to sing the French version of Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
's Elegy for Young Lovers in 1965, and Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
chose Mesplé for his performances of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's Jacob's Ladder.
During the 1970s she added operettas to her repertoire, especially by Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, such as La Vie Parisienne
La Vie Parisienne
La Vie Parisienne was a magazine in France founded in 1863 and popular at the turn-of-the-twentieth century. It was originally intended as a guide to upper class and artistic life in Paris , but it soon evolved into a mildly risqué erotic publication...
, Orphée aux enfers, and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein is an opéra bouffe , in three acts and four tableaux by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
, opposite Régine Crespin
Régine Crespin
Régine Crespin was a French singer who had a major international career in opera and on the concert stage between 1950 and 1989. She started her career singing roles in the dramatic soprano and spinto soprano repertoire, drawing particular acclaim singing Wagner and Strauss heroines...
.
Mesplé retired from the stage in 1985 and turned to teaching at L'École Normale de Musique in Paris and at the Music Conservatory of Lyon. She also gave master classes and acted as judge in many voice competitions around the world.
Mesplé left an impressive discography, encompassing recitals of opera, operetta, and melodies, complete opera and operetta recordings, some of rarely performed works such as Auber
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
's Fra Diavolo
Fra Diavolo (opera)
Fra Diavolo, ou L'hôtellerie de Terracine is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer Daniel Auber, from a libretto by Auber's regular collaborator Eugène Scribe...
and Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut (Auber)
Manon Lescaut is an opera or opéra comique in 3 acts by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, and, like Puccini's Manon Lescaut and Massenet's Manon, is based on the Abbé Prévost's story Manon Lescaut...
, Charles Lecocq's La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Lecocq. The French text was by Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning.-Performance history:...
, Robert Planquette
Robert Planquette
Jean Robert Planquette was a French composer of songs and operettas.Several of Planquette's operettas were extraordinarily successful in Britain, including Les cloches de Corneville , the length of whose initial London run broke all records for any piece of musical theatre up to that time, and Rip...
's Les cloches de Corneville
Les cloches de Corneville
Les cloches de Corneville is an operetta in three acts, composed by Robert Planquette to a French libretto by Louis Clairville and Charles Gabet based on a play by Gabet.In 1876, the director of the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques, Louis Cantin, hired Planquette to compose the operetta,...
, Louis Ganne
Louis Ganne
Louis-Gaston Ganne was a conductor and composer of French operas, operettas, ballets, and marches.-Biography:...
's Les saltimbanques
Les saltimbanques
Les saltimbanques is an opéra-comique in three acts, libretto by Maurice Ordonneau, music by Louis Ganne, first performed at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, Paris, on December 30, 1899...
, André Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
's Véronique
Véronique (operetta)
Véronique is an opéra comique or operetta in three acts composed by André Messager. The French libretto was by Georges Duval and Albert Vanloo...
, Reynaldo Hahn
Reynaldo Hahn
Reynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic and diarist. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie....
's Ciboulette
Ciboulette
Ciboulette is a French opérette in three acts, music by Reynaldo Hahn, libretto by Robert de Flers and Francis de Croisset, first performed at the Théâtre des Variétés, in Paris, on April 7, 1923...
, etc. However, it is her recording of Lakmé, opposite Charles Burles
Charles Burles
Charles Burles is a French lyric tenor, primarily associated with the French repertory, both opera and operetta.Burles was born in Marseille, France,where he studied voice with Léon Cazauran. He made his stage debut in 1958, in Toulon...
and Roger Soyer
Roger Soyer
Roger Soyer is a French operatic bass-baritone, particularly associated with the French repertory and with Mozart.Soyer was born in Paris, and first studied privately with G. Daum, before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 19. There he was a pupil of Georges Jouatte and Louis Musy...
, under Alain Lombard
Alain Lombard
Alain Lombard is a French conductor.-Career:Lombard attended the Conservatoire de Paris, where his studied violin with Line Talleul and conducting with Gaston Poulet. He subsequently secured an appointment at the Opéra National de Lyon in 1961, and later became principal conductor from 1961 to 1965...
, that will forever be remembered.
The archetype of the light French coloratura soprano, Mady Mesplé was noted for her technical security, her musical refinement, as well as her charming stage presence. Her voice was particularly recognisable for its quick vibrato, intensely focused intonation, the instrumental-like quality of her runs and an amazing upper register extending easily to high A-flat.
On July 14, 2011, she became Commandeur of the Legion of Honor.