The Great Claire Croiza
Claire Croiza was born in 1882 in Paris, the daughter of an American father and an Italian mother. She was, even as a child, clearly gifed in music. She was taught singing privately at first, but
then, as she began to grow up, she had the great good fortune to have been sent
to the famous Polish tenor Jean de
Reszke for further study. De Reszke was
not only a great tenor—one of the best of his day, in the 19th
century—but also, importantly, a renowned teacher and he taught many aspiring singers
who would go on to have great success.
After advanced study with de
Reszke, Croize made her opera début at the relatively tender age of 23 in Nancy
in 1905 in Messaline by Isidore de
Lara. The following year she made her first appearance at La Monnaie in
Brussels, as Dalila in Samson et Dalila,
beginning a long association with that theatre which included such works as Elektra, Carmen, La favorite, Werther
and singing the title role in Fauré's opera Pénélope.
In 1910 she performed in the world premiere of Cesare Galeotti’s La Dorise and created the title role in
the world premiere of Pierre de Bréville's Éros
vainqueur at La Monnaie. It was again as Dalila that she made her Paris
Opera début in 1908. Although Croiza first established herself as an operatic
singer, she increasingly developed her career as a recitalist specialising in mélodies, and she undertook recital
tours in numerous countries, including making frequent visits to London where
she was very well received. She had a great feeling for the French language and
was always able to enunciate the words in a clear and natural way without
sacrificing the flow of the music. Several contemporary composers chose to
accompany her personally in performances of their songs, including Ravel (in Shéhérazade), Fauré (in the premiere of Le jardin clos), Poulenc, Roussel, and
Honegger.
Here, however, is one of the fairly rare operatic recordings which Croiza made with Armand
Narçon of excerpts from Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande:
From 1922, she also worked as a teacher,
giving classes in interpretation at the École Normale, and from 1934 at the
Paris Conservatoire. Her pupils included Janine Micheau, Suzanne Juyol, Camille
Maurane and the baritones Jacques Jansen and Gérard Souzay.
In 1926 Croiza gave birth to
a son, Jean-Claude (1926–2003), whose father was Honegger, The parents did not
marry. Although distinct, her personal
life was not all that far from the traditional personal lives of famous artists
of her day. As for her artistic
reputation, it was, virtually from the
beginning, truly extraordinary. Reviews
from the early 1930’s spoke of her as “ a supreme interpreter of modern French
song, saying that she “brings to them an exquisite sensibility that reveals
every shade of meaning in the poems" (New
York Times). This view was reinforced in an obituary tribute (also in The New York Times) which spoke of:
"Her consummate musicianship, unerring in its intuition, sensitiveness,
charm and subtlety, exquisite diction and phrasing, combined with deep poetical
feeling and a restrained but profoundly moving dramatic sense allied to an
unusually wide culture…”
Reduced to their essence,
these critical comments have a theme, and that is one that can be further
summarized by words such as “elegance,
” sensitivity, “ intellectual
precision,” and “musical excellence.”
Here is an example; one which I will be bold enough to call typical. Here is Duparc’s “Invitation au voyage:
Finally, here is one of the
most elegantly beautiful pieces of music ever penned by the great Debussy, who
was most fortunated to have it recorded by the amazing Claire Croiza:
Thanks for remembering this supreme artist. I must admit that it was from her pupil Marguérite Fricker Meyerowitz that I learned most of whatever I managed to assimilate about the art of the mélodie. Her recorded legacy, though not extensive, seems remarkable in that she never seems to have made a single questionable side. It's all caviar for the connaisseur.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed it,
ReplyDeleteFather. I certainly agree with you, and I enjoyed writing it. Such an elegant and refined artist. It is simply pure joy to listen to her sing.
Thanks for the article, Edmund. I never heard her before. She is wonderful, I like her low notes very much. A very expressive voice.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course she is a brilliant artist, I totally agree with the quoted reviews.
n.a.
A brilliant piece on Claire Croiza . Another of her pupils was Betty Bannerman who translated Croiza's book into English. Betty taught singing at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester UK. By the time I was at the college Betty had retired but she would come back to award song prizes and visit the French song classes given by her successor and pupil,the Baritone Christopher Underwood. Chris had won the first prize for Melodie at the Paris Competition so perhaps Croiza would have been proud of this.
ReplyDeleteBetty told us that she and Claire sang duet recitals I wonder if the BBC recorded/ broadcast any of these?
Thank you sir for this nice paper. I don't think there was ever a female French opera singer with a clearer diction than the great Claire Croiza. It is amazing how every word is crystal clear from the very first listening. It is a characteristic we also find in her students.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, her student Camille Maurane is a baritone too (and an amazing one at that). The French name Camille can be given to both male and female children.