There is very little science in Fach. It is not like taxonomy; there has never been a Carl Linnaeus in the history of music. It is a classification simultaneously based in various criteria. Sometimes it has to do with the writing for voices, sometimes with types of role, sometimes with models established by a specific singer etc – and it definitely is specific to national repertoires. Critics generally try to establish (inexact) parallels between Italian and Germany categories, but French voices are a law unto themselves. For instance, the voice of haute-contre is a specimen exclusively observed in French baroque music. The name itself could mislead the uninitiated to believe it is a French word for countertenor, but that is not the case. The haute-contre is closer to a tenor than a countertenor will ever be (although there is “tenor” in the name): he basically is a tenor who sings in very high tessitura by means of voix mixte (not falsetto). One might point out that, in the baroque, all tenors would produce their high notes like that. Yes, but the tessitura for a tenor in a Handel opera or a Bach cantata is basically lower. For some reason – maybe the very sound of French language – contemporary haute-contres (we can only imagine how they sounded in the 18th century) have a clearly brighter sound that makes them a little bit more metallic in tone than the warmer sound of a Handel or Bach tenor, even when they sing a high g or a high a. This also means that the voice of haute-contre can be an acquired taste. Jean-Jacques Rousseau said its very unnaturalness meant it was usual a bit acidic in tone and rarely true in intonation.
When we look at the discography of French baroque opera, we observe that haute-contres are not only a domestic product of France. Belgium, the United Kingdom and even the US have their share of hautes-contres. French hautes-contres sometimes veer into light lyric repertoire, for the tradition of high notes in voix mixte did not disappear in the end of the baroque era in France. In any case, this is a very special niche of the repertoire, a little bit less unknown these days due to the recent growth of Rameau’s popularity with the audience. This week, we’re listening to one of the most popular works by Rameau and probably what is the most famous aria for the haute-contre voice (in the score, an “ariette’), which is Règne, amour from the acte de ballet Pygmalion.
An acte de ballet is actually a vocal work – a one-act work with a simple romantic intrigue, generally of mythological inspiration with as much dance numbers as you can imagine. As it is, the plot of Pygmalion does not require any explanation. Règne, amour is the last vocal number in the score. Amazed by the power of the child god, Amor, who transformed a beautiful statue in a woman, the enamoured sculptor announces the miraculous event: Règne, Amour, fais briller tes flammes,/ Lance tes traits dans nos âmes./ Sur des coeurs soumis à tes lois/Épuise ton carquois./ Tu nous fais, dieu charmant, le plus heureux destin./ Je tiens de toi l’objet dont mon âme est ravie,/ Et cet objet si cher respire, tient la vie/ Des feux de ton flambeau divin. (“Reign, o Love, light your flames/ Shoot your arrows in our souls./ On hearts subject to your laws, empty your quiver./ You procure us, o charming god, the happiest fate./ I receive from you the object that enraptures my soul,/ and the dearest object breathes, receives its life/from the fire of your divine torch.”).
When you see a text like that, you know this is going to be a superflorid aria. And it is! This is a very tough piece of singing. First, it mostly stays in the second octave – it’s like the tenor aria in Der Rosenkavalier… with coloratura. Second, the coloratura always has a weird vowel. We know, tenors love nasalizing their runs because, yes, it help keep everything in focus, especially around the passaggio. But singing bars and bars of of divisions on the French “an” without sounding a bit grotesque is a tough assignment. Third, you need crystal clear diction. And, last but not least, this is French. It is the hardest language to sing idiomatically.
Finding the right recording of Règne, amour is not difficult if you have in mind that, when hautes-contres are involved, you’ll never find anything ideal. Rousseau was right. Singing an aria like that is like walking on a tightrope – and the singer will have his tense and/or acidic moments and those when intonation is perfectible, especially in the end of long phrases. This is a celebratory aria and it must feel exhilarating in the fast tempo for the singer to form the ideal contrast with the slower tempo, when he must rather sound elegant and poised. So it needs a truly balletic tempo – you must feel like moving to the rhythm. As this requires extraordinary flexibility for the tenor, few conductors go for it. In the end, we have Hervé Niquet with Le Concert Spirituel and Jean-Paul Fouchécourt and Michi Gaigg with L’Orfeo Barockorchester and Anders J. Dahlin with Michi Gaigg. In terms of orchestra, L’Orfeo has a warmer sound and less bumpy playing – but, of course, in the end, choosing a recording turns around the singer in the role of Pygmalion.
Both Fouchécourt and Dahlin are regarded as Rameau specialists, and Fouchécourt appears in some extremely famous recording of French baroque music. I have to say that I first heard Règne, amour in concert with Luciano Botelho, a bel canto/Mozart tenor, who delivered it in a warm, round tonal quality that made me believe that you can expect some velvet there. Maybe the fact that he is not French made me think that a little bit less nasality than what the authentic French pronunciation requires might have been the reason for it. That is why I first checked Dahlin, who, yes, is marginally less nasal than Fouchécourt and therefore a little bit easier on the ear. His intonation is also a bit truer, but once you hear Fouchécourt, his naturalness, firmness of tone and truly astounding flexibility makes you understand his reputation. This is an aria with a cruel amount of attacks in high g’s and a’s. Without the da capo, the aria has 17 high a and three high b flat and an endless demand of high g’s. As an element of comparison: Handel’s Ev’ry Valley (from The Messiah) has no high a or b flat, Bach’s Frohe Hirten (from the Christmas Oratorio) has four high a’s… and Mozart’s Ah, lo veggio (from Così fan Tutte) has 20 high a’s and 13 (!) high b flat (I might have missed some). With Fouchécourt, we don’t feel that Règne, amour is high at all, although you’ll tend to agree with Rousseau here and there.
I’ve seen Jean-Paul Fouchécourt twice, never in baroque music, always in character roles. First at the Met in a Massenet’s Manon, then late in his career in Berlin both in Bizet’s Carmen and Chabrier’s L’Étoile and finally in the Saito Kinen Festival in a double bill L’Enfant et les Sortilèges/L’Heure Espagnole. Although he didn’t command then the ease with high notes we hear in the Rameau item this week, he was always characterful and impressively clear in his diction.
Fouchécourt was an astonishing Platee, it was real tour de force. No beef with Giles Ragon or Paul Agnee, but Fouchécourt really should have been the protagonist in one of those recordings. I saw him in that as well as the original Atys production at BAM and in Les Indes Galantes later on. He was an ideal haute-contre tenor, less well cast as Hippolyte for example. I imagine we saw him in the same rep at the met.
The Pygmalion might be his best commercial recording.
Platée was an ideal role for him, for the same reasons Hippolyte was not. The Pygmalion finds him in a good compromise of tonal charm (not his strongest quality) and dexterity.
He was basically the epitome of a specialized singer, but a really excellent singer. Even given the smallness of the roles he sang there, I’m actually surprised he sang at the met as often as he did. But I’ll always remember the Platee.
Yes, I guess France at that time was great place to be specialized in baroque repertoire. We’ve seen many important careers built around and beyond that repertoire – Gens, Piau, Fink et al Fouchécourt’s singing was not as versatile as theirs – and yet, as you say, he became like an exquisite seasoning in small roles in French opera performances all over the world. And he seemed to be having the time of his life in these character roles too.
I always find it interesting to see singers who were singing baroque music only tackle other repertoires. Sometimes it works well – usually better than the opposite situation.
I mean that’s one of the reasons people with no interest in baroque dismiss someone like Gens out of hand IMO. We’ve talked about her but I’m always surprised how borderline controversial she is among opera people. Like even if one doesn’t care from her, the divisiveness always surprises me.
I haven’t talked about Gens with anyone for a while, but that surprises me. Yes, there’s something odd in her singing of Romantic repertoire – I once read someone saying that there is something “incomplete” about her voice. And yet – or maybe because of that – I find her special. I was listening only yesterday to her Fairest Isle from Purcell’s King Arthur (I’ve listened to it like 12 times in a row) and I find it irresistible. Actually, I’ll listen to it again right now! haha
I think there’s a precious attitude towards specifically Mozart singers of old (I have admitted myself to missing singers on a bigger scale) and Gens is kind of lumped into that. I guess it’s because her success in those roles is usually in the favor of lower pitch on period instruments and smaller houses. I mean she’s not a flawless singer and I think things like “float” and a freer top are some of the things found missing in her Arsenal. I think there are people who just bemoan the lack of big voices and essentially view people who specialize in baroque as inferior singers who prominence is due to vacancy elsewhere. That specifically is something that seems to get leveled as Gens since her recordings are so vast.
I happen to genuinely love Gens, really her flaws don’t matter to me and I don’t find her at all boring. Her stylishness really wins me over almost every time. I do find her not variable exactly in Mozart but I do think some roles call attention to her limitations more than others and from evening to evening she can struggle in ways she doesn’t struggle at other times. But I happen to think she’s a genuinely great singer and I wouldn’t have predicted she’d have lasted as long as she has. I mean it’s basically the same sound, only with a shorter top and some thickness which is only really evident over a mic.
Well, large-scaled Mozart can be fun – but it’s rare. I mean, it is rare to find truly effective large-scaled Mozart singing, and that’s probably because… Mozart never envisaged it to be sung in a large scale. You just have to visit the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich to realize the scale of the venue where a heroic opera such as Idomeneo was created. Anyway, nobody can accuse Gens of “abandoning” her repertoire for music unsuited for her voice. As you observed, she covered the baroque repertoire as few other singers – she sang Handel, Bach, Rameau, Lully, Scarlatti, Purcell plus a bunch of rare names. Only Vivaldi is probably missing there (as far as I know). I wouldn’t call her a reference Mozart singer (yes, the float, the freer top etc), but she was a very commendable Donna Elvira and fared better than many a singer without a “baroque background” in other Mozart roles. Also, she has many important recordings of French repertoire to her credit. I found her mélodies CD delightful. And I have to say I was surprised by her singing in the new Faust with Benjamin Bernheim. So, really, I don’t get the negativity.
I was incredibly surprised by that Faust as I most certainly didn’t think at that date she’d have that role in her. The discography is underwhelming IMO with a lot of wonderful ladies not really at their best in that role, so she actually kind of goes near the top in my estimation.
More to the point I saw her in all Gluck roles live, two in the notorious paris acoustic, and while one could want a fuller sound and maybe a freer top, I never felt like she was overwhelmed or that she was being self consciously canny with her resources. If only she’d done the whole Armide.
Indeed, it is a discography that looks better on paper than when one actually listens to the recordings. I was a bit prejudiced about the opera (I still hate the air des bijoux) and decided I would have only one recording and finally bought the Plasson, which is a tad pasteurized as a whole. Anyway, I’ve listened to the new one, and found Gens refreshingly straight to the point and Bernheim is also ideally cast.
I’ve seen Gens as Iphigénie in Paris once – a couple of years ago (with Barbeyrac and Dupuis) and I thought she was vocally well suited to the part. She just took a little bit to warm, but after that she sounded really well. From Armide, I know only Enfin il est en ma puissance, which she recorded more than once. I thought she was splendid in it. Other than this, I saw her ages ago in Salzburg in Bach’s Mass in B minor with Abbado (she sounded lovely), a Shéhérazade in Madrid (also ages ago) and more recently both in Berlin French baroque cantatas and a Nuits d’Eté (not in her best voice). There was also a Mass K427, but I have no memory of her in it. I just remember she was one of the soloists…
Not one for Faust myself either.
Gens is another I saw when Christie started visiting BAM, so I have retained a fondness for her. She was wonderful in Castor