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Léopold Simoneau (1916-Québec;
2006-Victoria)
Pierrette Alarie (b.1921, Montréal)
Two of the finest Mozart singers of this century and, most likely,
any century since Mozart wrote his music for Michael Kelly and
Aloysia Lange (née Weber). Mozart, Handel, Gluck, Haydn,
Berlioz, Massenet, Ravel, Debussy, Duparc, Bizet, Offenbach, Gounod,
Schumann, Verdi et al, they did it all! Not only were they each
masters of their individual vocal techniques, but were extremely
faithful to the stylistic traditions of the composers and the eras
from which their repertoires were selected. Their artistic
goals were not to sing "everything" but to limit their
performances to the musical literature best befitted to the
uniqueness of their individual voices. Within the constraints
of their vocal abilities, most of their musical interpretations
border on the condition of being "definitive."
Concomitant to their appearances on the opera and concert stages of
the world, they were dedicated to the promulgation of the music of
Canadian composers as well, as will their large discographies
attest. They were the first singers to record what is
considered to be Canada's first opera, Quesnel's Colas et Colinette
(1790). Their recorded legacy of elegant, eloquent vocal mastery is a
tribute to their individual and collective dedication to a fashion of
classical vocal expression which appears to be diminished and already
faded from the opera and concert stages of today. Alas!
Newer generations of classical vocal aficionados are discovering the
art of Léopold and Pierrette through the re-release of their
recorded tradition now on CDs. The Durbeck Archive continues to
be one of the primary resources of their legendary culture on the
long playing (LP) record. Contemporary jargon might hypothesize
that "they are a tough act to follow;" while in the
"real world," they were an act which has
seldom been followed, but never equaled. Chapeau! |
