Sometime, I get caught in a groove. For the past few weeks, this has been French mélodie, or French Art Songs. I had posted Dame Maggie Teyte in 2022, and I decided to post her again. Teyte was very well known for French mélodie, and she also was a student of Jean de Reske. De Reske was a very famous and important voice teacher in Paris. If you want to know more about him, I suggest that you read https://classicalmusicandmusicians.com/2018/09/23/students-of-jean-de-reske-maggie-teyte-bidu-sayao/
The important thing to note about Teyte is the fluency with sung French, and the placement of the voice. She has very high and beautiful placement, which is a hallmark of Jean de Reske’s teaching. Her placement sits high in the resonating cavities of the head, and her ease of singing is notable.
Debussy, Beau Soir L.6
Lorsque au soleil couchant les rivières sont roses
Et qu’un tiède frisson court sur les champs de blé,
Un conseil d’être heureux semble sortir des choses
Et monter vers le coeur troublé.
Un conseil de goûter le charme d’être au monde
Cependant qu’on est jeune et que le soir est beau,
Car nous nous en allons, comme s’en va cette onde:
Elle à la mer, nous au tombeau.
Debussy, Beautiful Evening L.6
As the sun sets rivers run pink
A lukewarm shudder runs through fields of wheat
Advice to be happy seems to draw things out
Comes close to a troubled heart
Advice to taste the charm of being in the world
While we are young and the evening still beautiful
Because we disappear, as this wave goes away
It to the sea, we to the grave
Berlioz, Les nuits d’été, “Le spectre de la rose”
Soulève ta paupière close
Qu’effleure un songe virginal;
Je suis le spectre d’une rose
Que tu portais hier au bal.
Tu me pris encore emperlée
Des pleurs d’argent de l’arrosoir,
Et parmi la fête étoilée
Tu me promenas tout le soir.
Ô toi, qui de ma mort fus cause,
Sans que tu puisses le chasser,
Toutes les nuits mon spectre rose
À ton chevet viendra danser.
Mais ne crains rien, je ne réclame
Ni messe ni De profundis;
Ce léger parfum est mon âme,
Et j’arrive du paradis.
Mon destin fut digne d’envie:
Et pour avoir un sort si beau,
Plus d’un aurait donné sa vie,
Car sur ton sein j’ai mon tombeau,
Et sur l’albâtre où je repose
Un poëte avec un baiser
Écrivit: Ci-gît une rose
Que tous les rois vont jalouser.
Berlioz, Summer nights, “The ghost of the rose”
Open your closed eyelids,
Brushed by a virginal dream;
I am the spectre of a rose
That yesterday you wore at the ball.
You plucked me still sprinkled
With silvery tears of dew,
And amid the starry fête
You walked me around all evening long.
O you were the cause of my death,
You shall not be able to banish me:
Every night my rosy phantom
Will come to dance at your bedside.
But be not afraid – I require
Neither Mass nor De Profundis;
This light perfume is my soul,
And I come from Paradise.
My destiny was worthy of envy;
And for such a beautiful fate,
Many would have given their lives –
For my tomb is on your breast,
And on the alabaster where I lie,
A poet with a kiss
Wrote: Here lies a rose
Which all kings will envy.
Fauré, Après un rêve, Op. 7 no. 1
Dans un sommeil que charmait ton image
Je rêvais le bonheur, ardent mirage;
Tes yeux était plus doux, ta voix pure et sonore,
Tu rayonnais comme un ciel éclairé par l’aurore.
Tu m’appelais et je quittais la terre
Pour m’enfuir avec toi vers la lumière;
Les cieux pour nous, entr’ouvraient leurs nues,
Splendeurs inconnues, lueurs divines entrevues…
Hélas! Hélas, triste réveil des songes!
Je t’appelle, ô nuit, rends-moi tes mensonges;
Reviens, reviens radieuse,
Reviens, ô nuit mystérieuse!
Fauré, After a dream, Op. 7 no. 1
In sleep that gave a charming vision of you
I dreamed of happiness, fervent illusion,
Your eyes were softer, your voice pure and sonorous,
You shone like a sky that was lit by the dawn;
You called me and I left the earth
To flee with you toward the light,
The heavens parted their clouds for us,
We glimpsed unknown splendors, divine fires.
Alas, alas, sad awakening from dreams!
I call to you, O night, give me back your lies;
Return, return in radiance,
Return, O mysterious night!
Reynaldo Hahn, L’heure exquise
La lune blanche
Luit dans les bois;
De chaque branche
Part une voix
Sous la ramée…
Ô bien aimée.
L’étang reflète,
Profond miroir,
La silhouette
Du saule noir
Où le vent pleure…
Rêvons, c’est l’heure.
Un vaste et tendre
Apaisement
Semble descendre
Du firmament
Que l’astre irise…
C’est l’heure exquise.
Reynaldo Hahn, The Exquisite Hour
The white moon
Shines in the woods;
From every branch
There comes a voice
Beneath the boughs…
O my beloved.
The pond reflects,
Deep mirror,
The silhouette
Of the black willow
Where the wind is weeping…
Let us dream, it is the hour.
A vast and tender
Consolation
Seems to fall
From the sky
The moon illumines…
It is the exquisite hour.
Hahn, Belle lune d’argent
Belle lune d’argent,
j’aime à te voir briller
Sur les mâts inégaux
d’un port plein de paresse,
Et je rêve bien mieux
quand ton rayon caresse
Dans un vieux parc le marbre
où je viens m’appuyer.
J’aime ton jeune éclat
et tes beautés fanées,
Je t’aime sur un lac,
sur un sable argentin
Et dans la vaste nuit
de la plaine sans fin…
Et dans mon cher Paris
en haut des cheminées.
Hahn, Beautiful silvery mooon
Beautiful silvery moon,
I love to watch you shine
Upon the uneven masts
Of a port full of laziness,
And I dream much better
When your light caresses
The marble in an old park
Where I come to lean .
I love your young brilliance
And your faded beauty,
I love you on a lake,
On the silvery sand
And in the immense night
Of the endless lowlands…
And in my dear Paris
Above the chimneys.
Dame Maggie Teyte
April 17, 1888 – May 26, 1976
Dame Maggie Teyte, original name Margaret Tate, was an English soprano who was considered one of the 20th century’s foremost interpreters of French art song (mélodies).
Teyte studied at the Royal College of Music in London as a child, and, in 1903, she moved to Paris to study voice with Jean de Reske. She made her concert debut in 1907 in Monte-Carlo. Her first great opportunity came in 1908, when Claude Debussy chose her to succeed Mary Garden as Mélisande in the original production of his Pélleas et Mélisande in Paris. She was an immediate success and was considered by many to the superior to Garden in the role. Debussy later performed with Teyte in a number of concerts in Paris. Among the opera companies with which she performed were the Chicago Opera Company, the Boston Opera Company, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, the Opéra-Comnique in Paris, and Covent Garden in London.
Teyte married in 1921 and went into a period of semi-retirement. Upon the dissolution of her marriage in the early 30s, Teyte faced difficulties in resuming her career after the absence of about a decade.
The 1937 release of Teyte’s recording of a Debussy recital with Alfred Cortot at the piano brought her into international prominence as an interpreter of French mélodie. In 1940, this was followed by an album of French mélodie from Hector Berlioz to Debussy with both piano and orchestral accompaniment. Her last operatic appearance was as Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in 1951. Her last concert appearance was in London in 1955.