Sine Bundgaard - Beydts: CHANSONS POUR LES OISEAUX, Copenhagen 2003, High E-flat

Details

Description

THE SONGBIRD: Sine Bundgaard is a Danish soprano who begin her career as a coloratura (Zerbinetta, Adele, Blonde, Konstanze, Gilda, Fiakermilli, Adina); then, as sometimes happens, shifted into bigger lyric roles as her voice matured (Lulu, Verdi's Requiem, Liu, Elettra, Nedda, Desdemona, Marschallin, Ariadne, Eva). She made her debut at the Royal Danish Opera in 1999, and has since sung at many top opera houses in Europe. This recital, which I recorded from a Webcast in 2003, captures her earlier coloratura era. Apologies that the first song in this set fades out early, there must have been a drop out of the stream (we didn't have broadband back in 2003!)

THE MUSIC: French composer Louis Beydts (1895 - 1953) studied music in his hometown of Bordeaux with Julien Vaubourgoin and André Messager. After service in WWI, he composed operettas and concert pieces. He was director of the Opera-Comique in Paris for just one season until his death at the age of 58. Beydts wrote this set of four songs "Chansons pour les oiseaux" to poems about birds by Paul Fort; the cycle was published in 1950 and dedicated to soprano Janine Micheau (who unfortunately never recorded it). Three of the songs are short, and two are full of character (including the "meows" of a cat conversing with a caged canary). The most spellbinding is the third song -- a long list of the names of goddesses and nymphs of love is presented in a melody that rises languorously to floated high notes, and ending on repeats of the word "amour" up to a pianissimo High D-flat.