SINGHER French Operatic Arias (1945) - PACO004

Recital by French baritone Martial Singher

Broad range of French operatic arias recorded in 1945

This wonderful recording takes us from one of the earliest operas ever written in French, Lully's 1684 "Amadis", through a host of the highlights of French opera, ending up with perhaps one of the most famous arias of all time, the Toreador Song from Bizet's Carmen.

Not only is the sound quality superb from these 78rpm discs and a joy to restore, but the singing is marvellous throughout and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra lives up to its high reputation. This really is a recording to savour over and over again!

After graduating from the Univeristy of Toulouse, Martial Singher went to Paris intending to become a professor of French literature! It was in Paris that he discovered his fine Baritone voice, and thus instead Singher studied singing at the Paris Conservatoire with bass André Gresse. His operatic debut was in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride in November 1930 at the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam under Pierre Monteux. His official Paris Opéra debut was as Athanaël in Thaïs the following month. His big break occurred when he replaced Vanni Marcoux in 1931 as Iago in Otello, which led to an Opéra contract as a leading baritone which he held for nearly a decade.

He fled occupied France for the United States on a visitor’s visa en route to South America in 1940 and in the same year he married Margareta (Eta) Rut Busch, the daughter of the conductor Fritz Busch. He returned to the Colón in 1942 and 1943, and then sang 162 performances with the Metropolitan Opera. He taught at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and Mannes College of Music in New York. Singher succeeded Lotte Lehmann as the Director of Voice and Opera at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West from 1962 to 1981.

Andrew Rose