Claire Croiza
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Claire Croiza (14 September 1882 – 27 May 1946) was a French
mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...
and an influential teacher of singers.


Career

Claire Croiza (née Conelly, or O'Connolly) was born in Paris, the daughter of an expatriate American father and an Italian mother, and as a child she excelled at piano and singing. She was taught singing privately at first and then went to the Polish tenor
Jean de Reszke Jean de Reszke (born Jan Mieczysław Reszke; 14 January 18503 April 1925) was a Polish dramatic tenor and opera star. Reszke came from a wealthy Polish family with classical and operatic musical traditions. His mother gave him his first singing ...
for further study. She made her opera début in Nancy in 1905 in ''Messaline'' by Isidore de Lara. In 1906 she made her first appearance at
La Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (, ; , ; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National Opera of Belgium, a federal institution, takes the name of this theatre in which it is ho ...
in Brussels, as Dalila in ''
Samson et Dalila ''Samson and Delilah'' (), Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. It was first performed in Weimar at the (Grand Ducal) Theater (now the Staatskapelle Weimar) on 2 ...
'', beginning a long association with that theatre which included the roles of Dido (Berlioz), Clytemnestra (''Elektra''), Erda, Carmen, Léonor (''La favorite''), Charlotte (''Werther'') and the title role in Fauré's opera ''
Pénélope ''Pénélope'' is an opera in three acts by the French composer Gabriel Fauré. The libretto, by René Fauchois is based on Homer's ''Odyssey''. It was first performed at the Salle Garnier, Monte Carlo, on 4 March 1913. The piece is dedicated ...
''. In 1910 she performed as Alays in the world premiere of Cesare Galeotti’s ''La Dorise'' and created the title role in the world
premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the ...
of Pierre de Bréville's '' Éros vainqueur'' at La Monnaie. It was again as Dalila that she made her
Paris Opera The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...
début in 1908. Although she first established herself as an operatic singer, she increasingly developed her career as a recitalist specialising in
mélodie A ''mélodie'' () is a form of French art song, arising in the mid-19th century. It is comparable to the German '' Lied''. A ''chanson'', by contrast, is a folk or popular French song. The literal meaning of the word in the French language is " ...
s, and she undertook recital tours in numerous countries, including 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 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 Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
(in '' Shéhérazade''), Fauré (in the premiere of '' Le jardin clos'' ), Poulenc, Roussel, and Swiss-French composer Arthur Honegger. From 1922, she also worked as a teacher, giving classes in interpretation at the École Normale, and from 1934 at the
Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...
. Her pupils included Janine Micheau, Suzanne Juyol, and the baritones Jacques Jansen, Camille Maurane and Gérard Souzay. In 1926 Croiza gave birth to a son, Jean-Claude (1926–2003), whose father was Honegger, but the parents did not marry. She died in Paris in 1946 at the age of 63. Her reputation was concisely summed up by a reviewer in ''The Times'' reporting on a
Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...
concert in 1932: "Mme. Croiza is a supreme interpreter of modern French songs. She brings to them an exquisite sensibility that reveals every shade of meaning in the poems." This view was reinforced in an obituary tribute also in ''The Times'': "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, made her the friend and chosen interpreter of the chief contemporary French composers from Debussy to Poulenc and of the poets Valéry and Claudel."''The Times'' (London), Saturday 22 June 1946, p.7, Issue 50484, col.E.


Recordings

Her surviving recordings comprise over 40 titles, mostly French songs and opera extracts. They have been collected in a 2-CD set by Marston Records: "Claire Croiza: champion of the modern French mélodie".


References


Bibliography

* Bannerman, Betty. "Recollections of Claire Croiza", in ''Bulletin of the Institute of Recorded Sound'', (1956), no.1, p. 12, ith discography * Bannerman, Betty, (ed. & trans). ''The Singer as Interpreter: Claire Croiza's Master Classes''. (London: Gollancz, 1989)


External links


Extensive biographical notes accompanying the Marston CD set.


{{DEFAULTSORT:Croiza, Claire 1882 births 1946 deaths Singers from Paris French operatic mezzo-sopranos Academic staff of the École Normale de Musique de Paris 20th-century French women opera singers French music educators French women music educators