Michael Anthonio

Embarking on her farewell tour with pianist Philippe Cassard at Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall, Dessay was in residence for two days at Stanford which included a masterclass the day before. The show on Saturday was the only US stop of the farewell tour.

After decades of an illustrious operatic career, beginning with her 1992 Paris Opera debut as Olympia in Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Dessay shocked the opera world when she announced that she was leaving the opera world after a run of Jules Massenet’s Manon at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse in October 2013. Since then, Dessay has continued giving concerts and recitals around the world, including the marvelous 2017 Carnegie Hall concert, while also pursuing a career in theater and other music genres such as jazz and chansons.

Two years ago, in another interview, she announced her decision to retire from classical music when she turned 60 (which happened to be in this year) and to organize a farewell tour with her long-time pianist partner, Cassard. As reported here a couple of days ago, she will conclude the tour with a sold-out performance at Palais Garnier on March 30, before taking up the role of Madame Rose in Gypsy at the Philharmonie de Paris in April.

Decked out in a ponytail and all-black ensemble, Dessay eschewed pleasantries and dove straight into the opening number, Samuel Barber’s Mélodies passagères Op 27. The well-curated program was divided into two sections: French songs in the first part and American ones after the intermission. Composed in the early 1950s to the French poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, Barber’s song cycle was written for and dedicated to the voice and piano duo of Pierre Bernac and Francis Poulenc, and it was a homage to the art of mélodie.

Mélodies passagères (Fleeting Melodies) was an excellent opener for the farewell tour, as it set the mood for things to come. While Dessay was visibly fighting a cold (with occasional sniffles and coughs between sets), her musicality shone through from the first note. Singing without any score, she gracefully glided through Barber’s gorgeous harmony with excellent phrasing and sensitive reading of the texts.

Furthermore, she embodied the storyteller’s part with a commanding presence without exaggeration or becoming vulgar. Cassard provided the perfect accompaniment as he created a descriptive setting for the songs, particularly in the second song, “Un cygnet” (A swan), where his piano playing summoned up the lake in which the swan was swimming.

The following five songs were all associated with birds, starting with Ernest Chausson’s “Le Colibri” (The Hummingbird), Reynaldo Hahn’s “Le Rossignol des lilas” (The nightingale among the lilac), Maurice Ravel’s “Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis” (Three beautiful birds from Paradise), followed by Louis Beydts’s “La Colombe poignardée” (The stabbed dove) and Poulenc’s “Reine des mouettes” (Queen of seagulls).

This was indeed truly great programming, as they were not only thematically linked, but they also constituted a progression from 19^th-century French songs into 20^th-century and, subsequently, represented Dessay’s own transition from the classical realm into the theater world. Dessay became more animated as the set progressed, acting out the texts with her expressions and dynamics without resorting to caricature. Cassard closed the Birds section with a gorgeous solo, the second movement of Ravel’s Miroirs, M.43, aptly titled Oiseaux tristes (Sad birds).

The concert’s first part concluded with Poulenc’s “La Dame de Monte Carlo,” which I felt was the night’s highlight. Written in 1961 to the texts by Jean Cocteau, the monologue—a depiction of an elderly lady addicted to gambling—was a perfect vehicle to showcase Dessay the actress, as she wholeheartedly embodied the character with her body and voice. She changed the color of her voice to reflect the many moods of the characters, from excitement and devil-may-care attitude to anger and anguish and, finally, resignation. It was indeed a tour-de-force by both Dessay and Cassard, which delighted the audience and sent them into intermission in a frenzy!

The American portion of the night began with two arias from two of Gian-Carlo Menotti’s early operas: “Steal me, sweet thief” from The Old Maid and the Thief, and the well-known “Monica’s Waltz” from his fourth opera, The Medium. Here, Dessay continued her exploration of musical theater with a more declamatory type of singing and full-blown acting. (The Medium was, after all, produced on Broadway in 1947.)

Personally, I had no problems with her English diction (being a non-native English speaker myself), although I noticed that when she started to belt, the diction got a bit blurry. However, the cold made her low notes noticeably airier and weaker while singing in English. Nevertheless, “Steal me” drew considerable laughs from the audience with her sarcastic take on the character. She tripped a bit during the opening part of “Monica’s Waltz,” resulting in their having to restart the song. Still, she recovered nicely and fully engaged in the Monica-Toby banter throughout the song.

She brought in the music stand and the score for the following number: Barber’s lengthy Knoxville: Summer of 1915, based on James Agee’s text. Clearly a work in progress, this was the only moment during the whole concert where I felt her interpretation lacked conviction. Not only was she glued to the score most of the time, restricting her movements, but most importantly, she was also somewhat tentative in her phrasing, as if she was still trying to figure out the texts. I missed the innocent reverie that this piece usually conjures.

For the final song, Dessay chose “I want magic” from André Previn’s 1995 opera A Streetcar Named Desire, an aria closely associated with another opera diva, Renée Fleming. Here, Dessay brought a chilling melancholy to Blanche DuBois’s desire to escape the harsh realities of her life, making the famous texts even more bittersweet. It took the audience a while after the performance ended to applaud both performers!

Despite her decision to retire from classical music (hence the Farewell Tour), Dessay couldn’t resist returning to French operas for the encores. First, as announced by Cassard, she offered Chimène’s aria from Massenet’s Le Cid, “Pleurez mes yeux,” before jumping one last time to a role that made her famous, Léo Delibes’s Lakmé with “Tu m’as donné le plus doux rêve,” recalling the glory days of her past.

Thank you, Ms. Dessay, for all your gifts in the various roles throughout the last three decades! I wish you good luck in the theater and whatever genres bring you joy! If you’re in Paris, be sure to catch her next concert, where she will be performing Michel Legrand’s songs — including Yentl excerpts — among others at Auditorium du musée d’Orsay on Saturday.