Léopold Simoneau was a French-Canadian light, lyric tenor. He was renowned for his interpretations of Mozart, and he also sang light lyric roles of other composers. His vocal production is good, but what is really wonderful about him is his expressiveness, which I think that you will hear in the Schubert postings below. Listen also for his breath control and his legato, both of which are marvellous. He sings in German with absolute fluency. It is a delight to hear.
Handel, Semele, “Where’er you walk”, HWV 58 no. 45
Where’er you walk
Cool gales shall fan the glade
Trees where you sit
shall crowd into a shade
Trees where you sit
shall crowd into a shade
Where’er you tread
the blushing flowers shall rise
and all things flourish
and all things flourish
Where’er you turn your eyes
Where’er you walk
Cool gales shall fan the glade
Trees where you sit
shall crowd into a shade
Trees where you sit
shall crowd into a shade.
Schubert, from Die Schöne Mullerin, D795/4, Op. 25
War es also gemeint,
Mein rauschender Freund,
Dein Singen, dein Klingen,
War es also gemeint?
Zur Müllerin hin!
So lautet der Sinn,
Gelt, hab ich’s verstanden?
Zur Müllerin hin.
Hat sie dich geschickt,
Oder hast mich berückt,
Das möcht ich noch wissen,
Ob sie dich geschickt.
Nun wie’s auch mag sein,
Ich gebe mich drein;
Was ich such, hab ich funden,
Wie’s immer mag sein.
Nach Arbeit ich frug,
Nun hab ich genug
Für die Hände, für’s Herze,
Vollauf genug.
Schubert, from “The Fair Maid of the Mill” , “Saying thank you to the Brook”, D795/4, Op. 25
Is this how it was meant to be,
My babbling friend,
Your singing, your ringing,
Is this what it meant?
Off to the miller girl!
That is the meaning.
I have understood correctly, haven’t I?
Off to the miller girl!
Did she send you?
Or have you cast a spell on me?
That is what I would still like to know,
Whether she sent you.
So now, however it may be,
I shall give in to it:
I have found what I was looking for
However it may be.
I was asking for work,
Now I have enough,
For my hands, for my heart,
More than enough!
Schubert, from “Die schöne Müellerin”, “Die böse Farber” D 795/17, Op.25
Ich möchte ziehn in die Welt hinaus,
Hinaus in die weite Welt,
Wenn’s nur so grün, so grün nicht wär’
Da draußen in Wald und Feld!
Ich möchte die grünen Blätter all’
Pflücken von jedem Zweig,
Ich möchte die grünen Gräser all’
Weinen ganz todtenbleich.
Ach Grün, du böse Farbe du,
Was siehst mich immer an,
So stolz, so keck, so schadenfroh,
Mich armen weißen Mann?
Ich möchte liegen vor ihrer Thür,
In Sturm und Regen und Schnee,
Und singen ganz leise bei Tag und Nacht
Das eine Wörtchen Ade!
Horch, wenn im Wald ein Jagdhorn ruft,
Da klingt ihr Fensterlein,
Und schaut sie auch nach mir nicht aus,
Darf ich doch schauen hinein.
O binde von der Stirn dir ab
Das grüne, grüne Band,
Ade, Ade! und reiche mir
Zum Abschied deine Hand!
Schubert, from “The Fair Maid of the Mill”, “The Hateful color”, D795/17, Op. 25
I’d like to go out into the world,
Out into the wide world;
If only it weren’t so green, so green,
Out there in the forest and field!
I would like to pluck all the green leaves
From every branch,
I would like to weep on all the grass
Until it is deathly pale.
Ah, Green, you hateful color, you,
Why do you always look at me,
So proud, so bold, so gloating,
And me only a poor, flour-covered man?
I would like to lay in front of her door,
In storm and rain and snow.
And sing so sofly by day and by night
One little word: farewell!
Hark, when in the forest a hunter’s horn sounds –
Her window clicks!
And she looks out, but not for me;
Yet I can certainly look in.
O do unwind from your brow
That green, green ribbon;
Farewell, farewell! And give me
Your hand in parting!
Schubert, from Die schöne Müllerin”, “Die Neugierge”, D 795/6, Op 25
Ich frage keine Blume,
Ich frage keinen Stern,
Sie können mir alle nicht sagen,
Was ich erführ’ so gern.
Ich bin ja auch kein Gärtner,
Die Sterne stehn zu hoch;
Mein Bächlein will ich fragen,
Ob mich mein Herz belog.
O Bächlein meiner Liebe,
Wie bist du heut’ so stumm!
Will ja nur Eines wissen,
Ein Wörtchen um und um.
Ja, heisst das eine Wörtchen,
Das andre heisset Nein,
Die beiden Wörtchen schliessen
Die ganze Welt mir ein.
O Bächlein meiner Liebe,
Was bist du wunderlich!
Will’s ja nicht weiter sagen,
Sag’, Bächlein, liebt sie mich?
Schubert, from “The Fair Maid of the Mill”, The Inquisitive One, D795/6, Op. 25
I ask no flower,
I ask no star;
none of them can tell me
what I would so dearly like to hear.
For I am no gardener,
and the stars are too high;
I will ask my little brook
if my heart has lied to me.
O brook of my love,
how silent you are today!
I wish to know just one thing,
one small word, over and over again.
One word is ‘yes’,
the other is ‘no’;
these two words contain for me
the whole world.
O brook of my love,
how strange you are.
I will tell no one else:
say, brook, does she love me?
Bizet, Les pêcheurs de perls, “Je crois entendre encore”
Je crois entendre encore,
Caché sous les palmiers,
Sa voix tendre et sonore
Comme un chant de ramier!
O nuit enchanteresse!
Divin ravissement!
O souvenir charmant!
Folle ivresse! doux rêve!
Aux clartés des étoiles,
Je crois encore la voir,
Entr’ouvrir ses longs voiles
Aux vents tièdes du soir!
O nuit enchanteresse! etc.
Charmant souvenir!
Bizet, The Pearl Fishers, “Nadir’s Romance”
I think I can still hear,
hidden under the palm-trees,
her tender and sonorous voice
singing like a dove’s.
O bewitching night,
exquisite rapture,
O delightful memory,
mad elation, sweet dream!
Under the light of the stars
I can almost see her
slightly opening her long veils
to the tepid evening breeze.
O bewitching night, etc.
Léopold Simoneau
May 3, 1916 – August 4, 2006
The eminent Canadian tenor, pedagogue, and administrator, Léopold Simoneau, studied at Levis College and Laval University before continuing voice studies in Montréal with Salvator Issaurel. There he met Pierrette Alarie. They sang together in a number of local productions before he appeared in his first Mozartian role as Don Curzio in the Montreal Festival’s 1943 production of The Marriage of Figaro, Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. A year later he won the Prix Archambault; this led to studies in New York in 1945, the same year Pierrette Alarie made her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, having won that company’s “Auditions of the Air” competition in 1944. She and Leopold were married in 1946.
In 1949, Simoneau made his Paris debut with the Opéra Comique and established his reputation as a Mozart specialist in 1951 at the Aix-en-Provence and Glyndebourne festivals. In 1952, he appeared in a historic production of Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with the composer as conductor and Jean Cocteau as narrator, and in 1953, sang Don Giovanni at Milan’s La Scala. Of this same role sung during the bicentennial of Mozart’s birth at Salzburg, McLean wrote in The Montreal Star, “Simoneau was a hero in this Don Giovanni simply because he gave the best performance of the lot. I don’t think there is anyone alive who can sing Don Ottavio better than he.”
Throughout the 1950s, Simoneau and Pierrette Alarie made numerous concert tours, many of them with the Bel Canto Trio that included the baritone Theodor Uppman. They also performed in operas, gave numerous concerts in Canada and the USA, and made a number of records together. One of these won the first Prix de musique Calixa-Lavallée, awarded in 1959, and the Académie Charles-Cros in Paris selected their recording of concert arias and duos of Mozart for the 1961 Grand Prix du disque.
In 1962, Simoneau appeared in a recital with Glenn Gould and the following year once more sang the role of Don Ottavio in his only season at New York’s Metropolitan Opera (debut October 1963). Two years later, with his 185th appearance as Don Ottavio, he retired from performing operatic roles on stage but continued to do concert and oratorio performances until 1970 when he made his last public appearance in George Frideric Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
Simoneau was appointed deputy head of the music division of Quebec’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs, a position which led directly to the creation of l’Opéra du Québec in 1971. That same year he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was also made an Officer of the Ordre des arts et des lettres de France in 1990.
A profile in the International Dictionary of Opera sums up the voice of Léopold Simoneau, claiming he was “the Mozart tenor of his generation.” To celebrate the 1956 bicentennial of W.A. Mozart’s birth, Simoneau made several records with some of the world’s outstanding conductors including Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir John Pritchard, Herbert von Karajan, and Bruno Walter, who universally praised “his consummate musicianship, silvery tone, faultless technique and heartfelt projection of the inner drama of the Mozart roles.”
Over a 30-year professional career, Simoneau performed on stages worldwide with such other world-famous conductors as Busch, Otto Klemperer, Krips, and Georg Solti, and sang, in the opinion of one critic, “more beautifully than any tenor since John McCormack.”
Simoneau’s repertoire was not confined to Mozart. Eric McLean, a former music critic of the Montreal Star wrote that Simoneau sang “a repertoire that ranged from Antonio Vivaldi to Verdi, Gluck to I. Stravinsky and Mozart to Offenbach.” Many of his performances on stage, in concerts, and in recording studios were made with his Montréal-born wife, Pierrette Alarie. Together they sang such well-known couple roles as Romeo and Juliet, Vincent and Mireille, Tonio and Marie, Almaviva and Rosina, Alfredo and Violetta, and, most often, Belmonte and Blondchen.