French Soprano Ninon Vallin ~ Depuis le jour (1920s-1930s)

[SuperLuckydream]

Pure beauty! Thank you,dear Doug!

[sebreathnach]

Not Netrebko, Te Kanawa -- not even Callas -- can take this away from her. In this , she is as incomparable as Netrebko is in Zdes under Rachmaninov's baton! Thank you!

[numetutelare]

Deliziosa.

[MrSkylark1]

Vallin was superior to all who followed her in this aria and other works.

[mayatatyana1]

Doug, the voice of an angel. Lovely phoyo. Thank you. Maya

[AmhranaiAlainn]

Sublimely beautiful. Thanks for putting it up. A true singer.

[CurzonRoad]

@AmhranaiAlainn

Thank YOU... very much!

[abracadabranque]

C'est tout à fait ce qu'il faut dans cet air.Même si le manque de moëlleux des timbres français ne me charme pas toujours,c'est une version incontournable de cette oeuvre.Merci de nous l'offrir.

[stlivermore]

A Louise for the ages, thanx for sharing this captivating peformance, it's overwhelmng and lovely!

[CurzonRoad]

@stlivermore

Greetings... and thank you!

[sebreathnach]

@CurzonRoad I mean there was a recording on UTube. I adored it and wrote profusely to it. . . . I also used it on my site (still on UTUBE), but was eventually told that the recording was terminated. . . Of course, I have Vallin -- the Callas of Charpentier's Louise! -- privately; but UTube ceased playing it... Now she's back without as much as two photos to go with this wonderful rendering...

[federricoilgrande]

Fantastica::))

[paulostroff99]

Awesome! TY.

[sebreathnach]

She's back! The perfect Louise ... Angelic as ever.... Someone stole her from UTube...More photos, please.... She's so heroic she'd make you want to learn frog.. Merci and beaucoup as well!!

[cantorandopera]

One of my favorite arias. There are so many exquisite examples of it on Youtube and now there is Vallin to add to my long list of sopranos who sing this so well - Fleming, Sills, Farrell - Thanks Doug - divine! (but there is more to the aria :((

[AulicExclusiva]

We don't get Mary Garden's mounting ecstasy, but a wonderfully restrained, stylised moment of set poetry: the result is cooler, more 'classique' and yes, très Français. 'Pudique', as we would say. Of course Vallin "places" each uttered syllable in the verbal/musical phrase with the total confidence of a great French singer, AND with the kind of tonal precision that implies.

[AulicExclusiva]

To the Callas admirers, I recommend someone slightly North of the Peloponnese: the Hungarian Felicie Hüni-Mihacsek, for inner intensity without wobble.

[65attila]

Doug

This is a wonderful performance by a wonderful artis and I agree with Bivolari about the classic Werther with Thill.

John

[Bivolari]

Tres French, as they say. It's nice to hear a native sing the piece. The words are clear and no one but a native says l'amour quite the same way. She does duck the high b. Quel domage! She is a lovely Charlotte in the George Thill classic Werther.

[CurzonRoad]

As you say, nice to hear a native French speaker perform this, one of my favorite versions. Although I haven't listened to the Callas recording in a long time, her handling & the effect still stands out strongly in my mind. Thank YOU!

[meltzerboy]

Callas is wonderful in this aria (and so many others). Vallin, as Bivolari points out, is the essence of a French singer: the timbre, the diction, the phrasing, the style. Can hardly be bettered. Thank you.

[hobo1975]

@meltzerboy what about Melbas version? Grace Moore's version isnt bad either,i heard that Charpentier tutored her on it.or what about Mary Garden's version?

[meltzerboy]

@hobo1975 All of these are great, particularly Melba's two takes of the aria. She was a supreme technician and loved the French repertoire, both opera and song. Mary Garden also had an affinity for French music, as did Grace Moore.

[TheOperaGhoul]

@Bivolari

No, she doesn't… At 3' 54" there's simply no room left of the 78 side for the end of the aria, that's all. This is only one of her numerous recordings of the piece, though. The high b can be heard on the one with Ruhlmann conducting the Opera-Comique orchestra.