Diva Regine Crespin Dead

[stuny]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Last week Regine Crespin died in her native France at the age of 80. She was one of the most important operatic singers to emerge in Europe in the post-war years. Her soprano singing (though later in her career she became a mezzo) always swam in elegance, warmth and subtlety, and in her later years she became one of the finest vocal teachers on the Continent. Her professional debut was as Kundry in 1958, and in 1962 her US debut was at the Metropolitan as the Marschallin. Those who knew her say she was a generous woman, as elegant and warm in manner as was her singing.

[barneybm]

I saw her as the Marschallin, as Sieglinde in Die Walkure, and also as Charlotte in Werther. I remember her saying that her own mother had died when you was young so that she felt she had a special understanding of Charlotte. She was absolutely fabulous. She had a beautiful voice and was also a very great actor.

[ejd]

There was also an obituary in The Guardian the other day for Beverly Sills, a great American operatic heroine. I used to enjoy her performances with the New York State Opera at the Lincoln Center in New York in the early 1970s. In Maria Stuarda; Roberto Devereux; and Elisabetta, Regina D'Inghilterra - three of her most famous roles. I would go up to NY with friends from Princeton in the years I was there as a graduate student. Great times!

 

On one memorable night next door at the Metropolitan Opera (nothing to do with Sills or Crespin, btw, or Leica for that matter) we had Birgit Nilsson singing Sieglinde in Walkure, standing in for another singer who was unwell I think, with Rita Hunter (a British singer) as Brunhilde! Quite an event.

[stuny]

John -

 

"Bubbles", as Beverly Sills was known to her friends, like Regine had a great deal of warmth and generosity.

[ejd]

Ah, yes, Bubbles. Wonderful! I'd forgotten that. Thanks, Stuart.