Henri Legay (1920-92) was a French tenor whose career was mostly based in Paris. For a while he supported himself singing while accompanying himself with a guitar at Parisian cabarets. He composed some of the songs he sang. He also played for Edith Piaf and Ives Montand. in 1947 he received a first prize from the Paris Conservatory. At first he sang operetta. His debut in opera was in Brussels in 1950. His Paris debut in 1952 was at the Opéra-Comique as Gerald in Delibes Lakme. He also appeared at the Palais Garnier.
While he had some Italian roles in his repertoire – ie, Almaviva in The Barber and Alfredo in Traviata – he was best known for French opera. His strength was in the lyrical tenor roles that were perfectly suited to his light, but exquisitely formed, tenor voice. His singing represents a style that has essentially disappeared, but which was exemplified by Alain Vanzo, Leopold Simoneau, and most notably by Legay himself. Beauty of tone, elegance of phrasing, and lyrical nuance were the kernel of his art. Outside of France, Legay is best known for his portrayal of Des Grieux in the 1955 recording of Massenet’s Manon led by Pierre Monteux and featuring Victoria De Los Angeles in the title role. After 65 years, this is still the definitive recording of Massenet’s masterpiece.
I’ll start with the tenor’s two arias from Manon. These two will show both Legay’s strength and his limitations. Le Rêve is sung at the end of Act 2. Legay’s singing is perfection. His melting piano high notes, filatura, diminuendi, and clear diction are the gold standard for this quintessential Belle Époque aria. Ah, fuyez douce image from the Saint-Sulpice scene of Act 3 is a different matter. Legay is very close to the microphone and does a fine job, but I suppose that the aria would be more of a challenge in a live performance. This piece requires forceful declamation and forte singing. Indeed, the whole scene does not play to his strengths. Both selections are taken from the complete 1955 recording.
La dame blanche is an opéra comique by François-Adrien Boieldieu. First performed in 1825.It is mostly remembered for its tenor aria Viens, gentille dame. Legay’s version of the aria goes to the top of the list because of the elegance of both his phrasing and his French.
Adolphe Adam’s Le Postillon de Lonjumeau was first performed in 1836 at the Opéra-Comique. After some initial success it disappeared from Paris for 125 years until it was revived for Michael Spyres in 2019 at the same theater where it was first performed. The tenor aria Mes amis, écoutez l’histoire is frequently done at recitals and on records. It requires a high D at the end. Legay’s reading is likely the most stylish you’ll ever hear. The high D is brilliantly executed.
Édouard Lalo is best known for his violin concerto Symphonie espagnole. His opera Le Roi d’Ys is based on a Breton legend. It reached The Met in 1922, 34 years after its premiere. Despite the presence of Rosa Ponselle and Beniamino Gigli it only lasted 6 performances. It’s Act 3 aubade for tenor – Vainement, ma bien-aimée – is frequently done as a recital piece. If you’ve heard Italian tenors sing this piece, Legay’s idiomatic singing makes the aria sound as from a different world.
Finally, the two best known excerpts from Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers. Both are from Act 1. The ubiquitous Pearl Fishers’ Duet – Au fond du temple saint – is from a complete recording of the opera made in 1954 under the direction of André Cluytens. The renowned French baritone Michel Dens joins Legay in the duet. Je crois entendre encore is sung by any tenor worth his high notes irrespective of style. In Legay’s voice the great tune is draped in style, all the folds of which are authentic. Note that he sings the piece as written, no repeat of the final phrase. The way he does it the repeat is neither missed nor needed.
Legay is perhaps the foremost exemplar of a fach that is gone, likely forever. He’s mostly forgotten; in the English speaking world he was never a major player to begin with. Nevertheless, his recordings, though not abundant, are a treasure.
Hearing Henri Legay sing “Je crois entendre encore” has been a revelation in more ways than I can enumerate. On first hearing I felt that I was missing something due to what I thought was an omitted high note. But after accessing a piano-vocal score and seeing that Legay was singing the aria as written, I heard and felt its beauty when performed according to the score.
That led me to a search for every tenor I could think of, from Fernando de Lucia to Lawrence Brownlee, who had sung the aria “live” and/or in a recording studio. Predictably, the list was long and included the top-tier French, Italian, Spanish, German, Scandinavian, Russian, and Asian tenors from 1900 to the present.
Among four of the most famous tenors of the first decade of the last century, two sang the aria as written (Giuseppe Anselmi and Alessandro Bonci), and a third sang it mostly as written but with a prolonged low note at the end (Fernando de Lucia).
The fourth—Enrico Caruso—sang the interpolated high note in his 1904 Gramophone Company disc,as he would again in his 1908 Victor recording. Caruso’s contemporary, the elegant French tenor Edmond Clement, seems not to have recorded the aria, but reviews suggest that he too added the high note.
All their successors—Gigli, Martinelli, Lauri-Volpi, Thill, Simoneau, Merli, Fleta, Kozlovsky, Lemeshev, Rossi, Rosvaenge, Di Stefano, Bjoerling, Tucker, Kraus, Corelli, Domingo, Pavarotti, Alagna, Flores, Villazon, et al., sang the aria as Caruso had recorded it early in the century.
My search, though hardly complete, yielded only one—the Asian tenor and actor Yasu Nakajima—who sang the aria as written in a video posted on YouTube from a 2004-05 Teatro La Fenice production.
Although the production and cast received mixed reviews, including the young tenor (“Yasu Nakajima, ideally youthful and handsome, cannot muster the elegant, finely shaded delivery to make a memorable impression in ‘Je crois entendre encore’”), Nakajima for two reasons has made a lasting impression upon me: first for singing the aria as written, and second for beginning the aria standing yet finishing it prone on the stage. Throughout the contortions he underwent while proceeding from vertical to horizontal, his tones never varied.
For some critics, Nakajima may not be the ideal Nadir, yet he is a fine actor, singer, and perhaps gymnast too. Due to the passing of the French léger tradition, however, neither he nor other lyric tenors of his generation can match the exquisite vocalism of Henri Legay.
Incredible Lyric singing. A French Version of the Italianate Tito Schipa. Thank you Neil for resurrecting this great singer.
[…] Wittrisch’s singing of the Flower Song from Carmen is either sensitive or subdued depending on your taste. I’m lean towards the former camp. Another French opera, Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers. Je crois entendre encore, in German of course, is done about as well as a German tenor can do it. A fine effort, though Wittrisch won’t make you forget Henri Legay. […]
[…] Added Sept 23, 2021 – For a superlative reading of the aria here’ the great French lyric tenor Henri Legay’s interpretation. Je crois entendre encore Henri Legay For more about this outstanding artist go here. […]