Denise Duval should have made it to the Met Denise Duval should have made it to the Met

I decided I’d take ‘never made it to the Met’ as an excuse to submit a post about why French soprano Denise Duval (1921-2015) is special to me.

French kiss French kiss

To celebrate Valerie Masterson‘s turning 85 tomorrow, Trove Thursday offers a second annual birthday salute to the English soprano.

Are you there, God? It’s me, Margared Are you there, God? It’s me, Margared

Trove Thursday offers a nearly forgotten 19th  century opera with a most marvelous name: Le Roi d’Ys by Éduoard Lalo featuring a superb French cast led by Alain Vanzo, Andrea Guiot, Jane Rhodes and Robert Massard.

Grand design Grand design

Trove Thursday offers Offenbach’s delightful La Grande-duchesse de Gérolstein featuring Jennie Tourel, Laurel Hurley and Martial Singher, led by Arnold Gamson.

High ‘Society’ High ‘Society’

Off-and-on since last fall my PPP (Personal Pandemic Project) has been assembling a chronology of the American Opera Society. For 19 years beginning in 1951 it presented a remarkable series of concert performances of works unperformed by either the Met or New York City Opera.

Operas on the verge of a nervous breakdown Operas on the verge of a nervous breakdown

It’s a pity that Francis Poulenc took so long to getting around to compose his operas.

C’est la chanson des rêveurs qui s’étaient arraché le coeur C’est la chanson des rêveurs qui s’étaient arraché le coeur

Sandrine Piau‘s lovely recital with pianist Susan Manoff at The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society on February 14 entered around the themes of sleep, dreams and waking. 

All about my mother All about my mother

On her 90th birthday “Trove Thursday” presents the late great Belgian mezzo Rita Gorr parenting Régine Crespin in Massenet’s Hérodiade.

Denise Duval 1921-2016 Denise Duval 1921-2016

Soprano Denise Duval, muse to Francis Poulenc, died yesterday in Switzerland. She was 94.