Mignon
Encyclopedia
Mignon is an opéra comique
(or opera
in its second version) in three acts by Ambroise Thomas
. The original French libretto
was by Jules Barbier
and Michel Carré
, based on Goethe's
novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre
. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce
's The Dead
, (Dubliners
). Thomas's goddaughter Mignon Nevada
was named after the main character.
in Paris on 17 November 1866. The piece proved popular: more than 100 performances took place by the following July, the 1,000th was given there on 13 May 1894, and the 1,500th on 25 May 1919.
The opera was also adapted and translated into German for performance in Berlin with Madame Lucca
as Mignon. Lucca was well received, but the German critics were unhappy with the opera's alterations to the Goethe original, so Thomas composed a shorter finale with a tragic ending, in which Mignon falls dead in the arms of Wilhelm. This ending was an attempt to make the story of the opera somewhat more similar in tone to the tragic outcome of Goethe's. (The original version of Mignon for the Opéra-Comique had to have a happy ending, since at that time in Paris tragic operas in French were exclusively reserved for the Opéra
.) Unsurprisingly, this "Version allemande" still failed to satisfy the German critics and proved to be a futile endeavor. As Henry Edward Krehbiel
describes it, the "Mignon of Carré and Barbier bears little more than an external resemblance to the Mignon of Goethe, and to kill her is wanton cruelty."
Despite his success in Paris with the French version, Thomas was asked to revise the work for the first performance at the Drury Lane Theatre
in London on 5 July 1870. This version was given in Italian with recitatives (instead of spoken dialogue) and the role of Mignon, originally a mezzo-soprano
role, was sung by a soprano
(Christine Nilsson), and the role of Frédéric, originally a tenor
, was sung by a contralto
(Zelia Trebelli-Bettini). A second verse was added to Lothario's aria in the first act ("Fugitif et tremblant" in the French version), and in the second act, a rondo-gavotte for Frédéric ("Me voici dans son boudoir") was devised using the music of the entr'acte preceding that act, to satisfy Mme Trebelli-Bettini, who was discomfited by having to take on a role originally written for buffo tenor. Apparently the coloratura soprano
Elisa Volpini, who was to sing Philine, felt that her aria at the end of the second act ("Je suis Titania") was insufficient, and another florid aria ("Alerte, alerte, Philine!") was inserted after the second act entr'acte and before Laerte's 6/8 Allegretto ("Rien ne vaut"). The finale was also much shortened. Philine's extra aria appears to have either never been orchestrated, or the orchestration was lost or destroyed. (Most sources say that the aria was performed and not cut from the Drury Lane production, implying that Thomas must have orchestrated it.) The aria is known from several piano-vocal scores and is included as an appendix, sung by Ruth Welting with flute
and harpsichord
accompaniment, as part of the 1978 recording with Marilyn Horne
as Mignon. The recording also includes a second appendix with the original, longer version of the finale.
The United States premiere was given on 9 May 1871 at the French Opera House
in New Orleans. This was followed by a Maurice Strakosch
production in Italian at the New York Academy of Music on 22 November 1871 with Christine Nilsson as Mignon, Mlle. Léon Duval as Philine, Victor Capoul
as Wilhelm, and Mlle. Ronconi
as Frédéric. The substantial success of the opera in London and New York has been attributed to the presence of Christine Nilsson in both productions. Nilsson also performed the role at the Metropolitan Opera
in New York in 1883.
The versions of the opera performed outside of France, in particular, those in the United States and Italy, have been in Italian (later also in French), with Mignon as a soprano or mezzo-soprano, and Frédéric as a mezzo-soprano or contralto, and with the sung recitatives and the shortened finale. More recently, in 1986, the original opéra comique
version with soprano Cynthia Clarey as Mignon was revived for a production at the Wexford Festival Opera
.
Noted soprano interpreters of Mignon have included Emma Albani
(Covent Garden's first Mignon in 1874), Lucrezia Bori
, and Geraldine Farrar
; mezzo-sopranos have included Marilyn Horne
, Giulietta Simionato
, Frederica von Stade
, Risë Stevens
, and Ebe Stignani
. Lily Pons
was famous for singing Philine.
is applauded in the conservatory. Mignon, in jealously, shouts that she wishes the building would catch fire and runs out. Lothario hears her and moves toward the conservatory. After Mignon returns, Wilhelm receives her so warmly that Philine, now jealous, sends her to fetch the wild flowers in the conservatory. Wilhelm rushes to save Mignon from the fire that Lothario had set to please her, carrying her unconscious body out of the conservatory with the singed flowers still in her hand.
Wilhelm has brought Mignon and Lothario to a castle in Italy which he considers buying. There an old man watches over Mignon and prays for her recovery. Antonio relates how the castle’s previous owner had gone mad after his wife had died of grief over the loss of their young daughter. Wilhelm decides to buy the castle for Mignon because it has so speeded her recovery. Mignon awakens and confesses to Wilhelm of her love for this strangely familiar place. He finally realizes that he loves her deeply and resists Philine’s attempts to win him back. Lothario re-enters and informs the couple that he is the owner of the castle and that returning here has restored his sanity. After reading a prayer found in a book in the house, Mignon realizes the she is his daughter Sperata. The three embrace happily.
Opéra comique
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
(or opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in its second version) in three acts by Ambroise Thomas
Ambroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.-Biography:"There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas."- Emmanuel Chabrier-Early life...
. The original French libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
was by Jules Barbier
Jules Barbier
Paul Jules Barbier was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré...
and Michel Carré
Michel Carré
Michel Carré was a prolific French librettist.He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing libretti. His libretto for Mirette was never performed in France but was later performed in English adaptation in...
, based on Goethe's
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship is the second novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1795-96. While his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, featured a hero driven to suicide by despair, the eponymous hero of this novel undergoes a journey of self-realization...
. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's The Dead
The Dead (short story)
"The Dead" is the final short story in the 1914 collection Dubliners by James Joyce. It is the longest story in the collection and is often considered the best of Joyce's shorter works. At 15,672 words it has also been considered a novella....
, (Dubliners
Dubliners
Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century....
). Thomas's goddaughter Mignon Nevada
Mignon Nevada
Mignon Nevada was an English operatic soprano. She was born in Paris, daughter of the American operatic soprano Emma Nevada and her English husband Raymond Palmer. She was named after the title character of the 1866 opera Mignon, written by her godfather, French composer Ambroise Thomas...
was named after the main character.
Performance history
The first performance was at the Opéra-ComiqueOpéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
in Paris on 17 November 1866. The piece proved popular: more than 100 performances took place by the following July, the 1,000th was given there on 13 May 1894, and the 1,500th on 25 May 1919.
The opera was also adapted and translated into German for performance in Berlin with Madame Lucca
Pauline Lucca
Pauline Lucca was a prominent operatic soprano, born in the Austrian capital of Vienna.As a child she showed a remarkable talent for singing and at eight years old became a voice student of M. Walter. Not too long after her parents lost all their property, forcing her to abandon her studies...
as Mignon. Lucca was well received, but the German critics were unhappy with the opera's alterations to the Goethe original, so Thomas composed a shorter finale with a tragic ending, in which Mignon falls dead in the arms of Wilhelm. This ending was an attempt to make the story of the opera somewhat more similar in tone to the tragic outcome of Goethe's. (The original version of Mignon for the Opéra-Comique had to have a happy ending, since at that time in Paris tragic operas in French were exclusively reserved for the Opéra
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
.) Unsurprisingly, this "Version allemande" still failed to satisfy the German critics and proved to be a futile endeavor. As Henry Edward Krehbiel
Henry Edward Krehbiel
Henry Edward Krehbiel was an American music critic and musicologist.-Biography:Krehbiel was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He received a general education from his father, a German clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and began in 1872 the study of law in Cincinnati, Ohio...
describes it, the "Mignon of Carré and Barbier bears little more than an external resemblance to the Mignon of Goethe, and to kill her is wanton cruelty."
Despite his success in Paris with the French version, Thomas was asked to revise the work for the first performance at the Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
in London on 5 July 1870. This version was given in Italian with recitatives (instead of spoken dialogue) and the role of Mignon, originally a mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
role, was sung by a soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
(Christine Nilsson), and the role of Frédéric, originally a tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
, was sung by a contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
(Zelia Trebelli-Bettini). A second verse was added to Lothario's aria in the first act ("Fugitif et tremblant" in the French version), and in the second act, a rondo-gavotte for Frédéric ("Me voici dans son boudoir") was devised using the music of the entr'acte preceding that act, to satisfy Mme Trebelli-Bettini, who was discomfited by having to take on a role originally written for buffo tenor. Apparently the coloratura soprano
Coloratura soprano
A coloratura soprano is a type of operatic soprano who specializes in music that is distinguished by agile runs and leaps. The term coloratura refers to the elaborate ornamentation of a melody, which is a typical component of the music written for this voice...
Elisa Volpini, who was to sing Philine, felt that her aria at the end of the second act ("Je suis Titania") was insufficient, and another florid aria ("Alerte, alerte, Philine!") was inserted after the second act entr'acte and before Laerte's 6/8 Allegretto ("Rien ne vaut"). The finale was also much shortened. Philine's extra aria appears to have either never been orchestrated, or the orchestration was lost or destroyed. (Most sources say that the aria was performed and not cut from the Drury Lane production, implying that Thomas must have orchestrated it.) The aria is known from several piano-vocal scores and is included as an appendix, sung by Ruth Welting with flute
Western concert flute
The Western concert flute is a transverse woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, or flute player....
and harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
accompaniment, as part of the 1978 recording with Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....
as Mignon. The recording also includes a second appendix with the original, longer version of the finale.
The United States premiere was given on 9 May 1871 at the French Opera House
French Opera House
The French Opera House was an opera house in New Orleans. It was one of the city's landmarks from its opening in 1859 until it was destroyed by fire in 1919...
in New Orleans. This was followed by a Maurice Strakosch
Maurice Strakosch
Maurice Strakosch was an American musician and impresario of Czech origin.-Biography:Strakosch was born in Gross-Seelowitz , Moravia. He made his debut as a pianist at the age of 11 in Brno performing a piano concerto by Hummel...
production in Italian at the New York Academy of Music on 22 November 1871 with Christine Nilsson as Mignon, Mlle. Léon Duval as Philine, Victor Capoul
Victor Capoul
Joseph Victor Amédée Capoul, born in Toulouse on 27 February 1839 and died in Pujaudran on 18 February 1924, was a French operatic tenor with a lyric voice and a graceful singing style.-Career:Victor Capoul began his studies in Toulouse...
as Wilhelm, and Mlle. Ronconi
Giorgio Ronconi
Giorgio Ronconi was an Italian operatic baritone celebrated for his brilliant acting and compelling stage presence. In 1842, he created the title-role in Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco at La Scala, Milan.-Career:...
as Frédéric. The substantial success of the opera in London and New York has been attributed to the presence of Christine Nilsson in both productions. Nilsson also performed the role at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York in 1883.
The versions of the opera performed outside of France, in particular, those in the United States and Italy, have been in Italian (later also in French), with Mignon as a soprano or mezzo-soprano, and Frédéric as a mezzo-soprano or contralto, and with the sung recitatives and the shortened finale. More recently, in 1986, the original opéra comique
Opéra comique
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
version with soprano Cynthia Clarey as Mignon was revived for a production at the Wexford Festival Opera
Wexford Festival Opera
The Wexford Festival Opera is an opera festival that takes place in the town of Wexford in South-Eastern Ireland during the months of October and November.-Festival origins under Tom Walsh, 1951 to 1966:...
.
Noted soprano interpreters of Mignon have included Emma Albani
Emma Albani
Dame Emma Albani DBE was a leading soprano of the 19th century and early 20th century, and the first Canadian singer to become an international star. Her repertoire focused on the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Wagner...
(Covent Garden's first Mignon in 1874), Lucrezia Bori
Lucrezia Bori
Lucrezia Bori was a Spanish operatic singer, a lyric soprano.-Biography:Lucrezia Bori was born in Valencia, Spain. Her real name was Lucrecia Borja y González de Riancho and her family were reputed to be descended from the Borgias.Her voice had a unique timbre and transparent quality unlike any...
, and Geraldine Farrar
Geraldine Farrar
Geraldine Farrar was an American soprano opera singer and film actress, noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice." She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers".- Early life and opera career :Farrar was born in Melrose,...
; mezzo-sopranos have included Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....
, Giulietta Simionato
Giulietta Simionato
Giulietta Simionato was an Italian mezzo-soprano. Her career spanned from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966.-Life:Born at Forlì, Romagna, she studied in Rovigo and Padua, and made her operatic debut at Montagnana in 1928...
, Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...
, Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens is a retired American operatic mezzo-soprano.-Professional life:Stevens studied at New York's Juilliard School for three years. She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her début as Mignon in Prague in 1936 and stayed there until...
, and Ebe Stignani
Ebe Stignani
Ebe Stignani was an Italian opera singer, who was pre-eminent in the dramatic mezzo-soprano roles of the Italian repertoire during a stage career of more than thirty years.-Career:...
. Lily Pons
Lily Pons
Lily Pons was a French-American operatic soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. As an opera singer she specialized in the coloratura soprano repertoire and was particularly associated with the title roles in Léo Delibes' Lakmé and Gaetano...
was famous for singing Philine.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 17 November 1866 (Conductor: Théophile Tilmant Théophile Tilmant Théophile Tilmant, was a French violinist and conductor born on 9 July 1799 in Valenciennes, France and died on 7 or 8 May 1878, Asnières.... ) |
Second version cast, 5 July 1870 (Conductor: Luigi Arditi Luigi Arditi Luigi Arditi was an Italian violinist, composer and conductor.Arditi was born in Crescentino, Piemonte . He began his musical career as a violinist, and studied music at the Conservatory of Milan. He made his debut in 1843 as a director at Vercelli, and it was there that he was made an honorary... ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mignon | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... (1866) soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... (1870) |
Célestine Galli-Marié |
Christine Nilsson |
| Philine, an actress | soprano | Marie Cabel Marie Cabel Marie Cabel was a Belgian coloratura soprano. She is probably best remembered for having created the role of Philine in Ambroise Thomas' opera Mignon.-Early life and career:... |
Elisa Volpini |
| Wilhelm Meister, a student | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Léon Achard | Alessandro Bettini |
| Frédéric, Philine's admirer | tenor (1866) contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... (1870) |
Bernard Voisy |
Zelia Trebelli-Bettini Zelia Trebelli-Bettini Zelia Trebelli-Bettini , also known as Zelia Gilbert or by her stage name Trebelli, was a French opera singer.Mme Trebelli's artistry was greatly admired by George Bernard Shaw, who wrote about her a number of times in his various reviews... |
| Laerte, an actor | tenor | Joseph-Antoine-Charles Couderc | Edouard Gassier |
| Lothario, a wandering minstrel | bass | Eugène Bataille | Jean-Baptiste Faure Jean-Baptiste Faure Jean-Baptiste Faure was a celebrated French operatic baritone and an art collector of great significance. He also composed a number of classical songs.-Singing career:Faure was born in Moulins... |
| Jarno, a gypsy | bass | François Bernard | Signor Raguer |
| Antonio, a castle servant | bass | Davoust | Giovanni Volpini? |
| Chorus: Townspeople, peasants, gypsies, guests, actors | |||
Synopsis
- Time: End of the 18th century.
- Place: GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Act 1
In the courtyard of an inn in a small German town, the wandering minstrel Lothario sings and the Gypsies dance while the townspeople watch and drink. Jarno threatens Mignon with a stick when she refuses to dance, but Lothario and Wilhelm Meister come to her aid. She thanks them and divides her bouquet of wild flowers between them. Wilhelm and Laerte have a drink together. Philine and Laerte leave, after he gives her his flowers from Mignon. Mignon tells Wilhelm she was captured by Gypsies as a child. Wilhelm decides to purchase Mignon’s freedom. Lothario comes to say goodbye to Mignon. Lothario wants Mignon to travel with him, but she stays with Wilhelm. Frédéric lovingly follows Philine in, but she also wants Wilhelm. The acting troupe is about to set off for a baron's castle after receiving an invitation to perform there. Mignon is deeply in love with Wilhelm, but upset to see the flowers that she gave him in the hands of Philine.Act 2
In Philine’s room in the baron's castle, Philine is elated, living in the luxury and charming the baron. Laerte is heard outside, praising Philine. Wilhelm and Mignon enter. She pretends to sleep while Wilhelm and Philine sing. When the couple leave, Mignon tries on Philine’s costumes and make-up. She is jealous and exits. Frédéric enters. When Wilhelm returns for Mignon he is confronted by Frédéric. Mignon rushes in to break up their impending fight. Wilhelm decides that he cannot stay with Mignon and says goodbye to her. He leaves arm-in-arm with a jubilant Philine. Later, in the courtyard of the castle, Mignon is consumed by a jealous rage, when she hears Lothario playing the harp. He comforts the girl. Philine's portrayal of Titania in A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
is applauded in the conservatory. Mignon, in jealously, shouts that she wishes the building would catch fire and runs out. Lothario hears her and moves toward the conservatory. After Mignon returns, Wilhelm receives her so warmly that Philine, now jealous, sends her to fetch the wild flowers in the conservatory. Wilhelm rushes to save Mignon from the fire that Lothario had set to please her, carrying her unconscious body out of the conservatory with the singed flowers still in her hand.
Act 3
Noted arias
- "Oui, je veux par le monde" (Wilhelm)
- "Connais-tu le pays" (Mignon)
- "Adieu, Mignon!" (Wilhelm)
- "Je suis Titania" (Philine)
- "Elle ne croyait pas" (Wilhelm)
Recordings
- 1952 - Geneviève Moizan (Mignon), Janine MicheauJanine MicheauJanine Micheau was a French singer, one of the leading lyric sopranos of her era in France.Janine Micheau was born in Toulouse, and studied voice at the Paris Conservatoire...
(Philine), Libero de LucaLibero de LucaLibero De Luca is an Italian lyric tenor, particularly associated with the French repertory.- Life and career :De Luca was born in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, and studied voice at the Zurich Coservatory with Alfredo Cairati...
(Wilhelm Meister), René Bianco (Lothario), Robert Destaing (Laerte), Noël Pierotte (Jarno), François Louis Deschamps (Frédéric) - Choeur et Orchestre du Théâtre National de Belgique, Georges SébastianGeorges SébastianGeorges Sébastian was a French conductor of Hungarian birth, particularly associated with Wagner and the post-romantic repertory ....
- (Preiser) - 1977 - Marilyn HorneMarilyn HorneMarilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....
(Mignon), Ruth Welting (Philine), Alain VanzoAlain VanzoAlain Vanzo was a French opera singer and composer, one of few French tenors of international standing in the postwar era...
(Wilhelm Meister), Nicola ZaccariaNicola ZaccariaNicola Zaccaria , born Nicholas Angelos Zachariou was a Greek bass.-Career:Born in Piraeus, Zaccaria studied at the Athens Conservatory where he enjoyed his debut in 1949, aged 26. He sang at La Scala in 1953 and his position as a mainstay of the bass operatic repertoire was assured thereafter. He...
(Lothario), André Battedou (Laerte), Frederica von StadeFrederica von StadeFrederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...
(Frédéric), Claude Meloni (Jarno) - Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Philarmonic Orchestra, Antonio de AlmeidaAntonio de AlmeidaAntonio de Almeida may refer to:* Antonio de Almeida , French conductor* António José de Almeida , sixth president of Portugal*Antonio de Almeida e Costa , Portuguese naval officer and politician...
- (CBS)