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Denise Duval

Denise Duval (Soprano)

Born: 23rd October 1921, Paris

Died: 25th January 2016, Bex

Nationality: French

Born in Paris on 23rd October 1921, Duval spent much of her childhood in the Far East and began her career in France in her early twenties, making her debut in Bordeaux as Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana and subsequently establishing herself on the Paris opera scene, where her early roles included Santuzza and Butterfly. Poulenc first encountered her singing Butterfly’s great aria in a revue at the Folies-Bergère, as he was casting around for a soprano to play the polymorphous title-role in his recently-completed opera bouffe Les mamelles de Tirésias; though the work was poorly received at its premiere, it sparked a life-long friendship and artistic partnership between Duval and the composer, who found inspiration in her compelling stage-presence, gamine beauty, and clean, slightly astringent soprano voice as well as a sensitivity to language that would prove absolutely crucial in text-driven works like La voix humaine and Dialogues des Carmelites.

Blanche de la Force in the latter work is perhaps the operatic role with which Duval is most closely associated; though the work was originally given in Italian at La Scala (Poulenc intended the work to be sung in the mother-tongue of audiences and singers where possible), with Virginia Zeani as Blanche, Duval sang in the French premiere in June 1957 and recorded the role for EMI the following year (Gramophone would describe her as ‘part of the long line of clear-voiced, incisive sopranos in the Heldy mould. She catches here all the conflicting facets of Blanche’s personality, girlish, wilful, frightened, elated as the role requires’).

Later that year Poulenc and Duval would collaborate on the great one-woman opera La voix humaine, which sets a text by Jean Cocteau and depicts a woman’s final telephone conversation with a departing lover; Duval sang in the premiere performance at Paris’s Opéra Comique and recorded the work soon after for EMI (under Georges Prêtre). She subsequently introduced it to UK and US audiences, and filmed it for television (directed by Dominique Delouche) in 1970, five years after her effective retirement from the operatic stage.

Though primarily associated with Poulenc, Duval also excelled in other French repertoire (her roles included Salomé in Massenet’s Hérodiade, Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust, Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, the title-role in Thaïs, Debussy’s Mélisande, and Concepción in Ravel’s L'heure espagnole) and was also a renowned interpreter of other contemporary composers including Germaine Tailleferre, Arthur Honegger and Florent Schmitt, many of whom she and Poulenc championed in their frequent recitals together.

Duval was profoundly affected by the death of Poulenc in 1963, and withdrew from the stage not long afterwards, though she continued to teach and give masterclasses well into her seventies. She died in Switzerland on 25th January 2016.

Find out more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Duval

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Obituary, Denise Duval 1921 - 2016

27th January 2016

The French soprano, who was closely associated with Francis Poulenc and gave the first performances of La voix humaine, has died aged 94.

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