Hugues Cuénod

In celebration of his one hundredth birthday, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation has awarded Hugues Cuénod the World of Song award for 2002.

Here's a report on the Centennial Birthday Party from another Lehmann Foundation Advisor, Damien Top: some remembrances about Cuenod's birthday:

A nice evening indeed with Felicity Lott, Philippe Huttenlocher, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Roger Vignolles, David Abramowitz, Quatuor Sine Nomine, Marc Minkowski. A "public party" held at the Theatre de Vevey in Vevey, Switzerland, where Cuenod lives. But only by invitation provided by Cuenod. The audience room was full of people of course. The City offered the buffet to some of the listeners (VIPs I guess...I'm proud to be in this list!)

Lots of archival films were projected on a large screen in between the live parts. Two music critics told Hugues' life and he added witty and funny anecdotes. Of course he was really far better than the others: the critics were pretentious and talkative, some songs were not so good as deserved, but Lott, Huttenlocher, Vignoles and the quartet were splendid.

There were two prerecorded messages on the screen : one by Hugues Gall, the other one by Barbara Hendricks [another Lehmann Foundation Advisor]: she spoke about the time Cuenod gave masterclasses on Debussy at the Julliard. She sang the Jet d'eau. He ask her to sing again. Hugues says it's because she was so perfect that he had to save time and find something wrong to tell her, but actually he found nothing!

After the show, there was a big reception and buffet on stage. Hugues was very happy, he spoke with everybody and had no time to eat or rest!! He even imparted to me "please stay tomorrow and come to my house : we'll do music." Unfortunately I had to go back to Paris... but for sure I will go back again to Vevey asap.

His earing is ok, (only little difficulties form time to time). His memory is incredible (better than the jounalists presenting the show who were supposed to know their prepared speech by heart). He is not singing anymore, neither is he teaching. But he always enjoys receiving friends and speaking about music, having a good dinner and a nice glass of wine.

Listen to the Great Songs program with an interview of M. Cuenod. This is an hour program and will take some time to download to your computer, depending on your modem or connection.

Hugues Cuenod, tenor, is a singer who has sung everything, from Machaut to Stravinsky. An outstanding sight-reader, with a flair for the unusual, Cuénod has left a discographic heritage of the first order. Especially noted for his recordings of mélodie, Bach and Elisabethan song, his performing career continued until his mid-90s. He was born in 1902 and holds the record as the oldest person to make a debut at the Metropolitan Opera, singing the Emperor there in Turandot in 1987.

In an interview in 1997, 95-year-old Swiss Cuénod talked to pianist Graham Johnson, recalling prewar Vienna and Paris, where he frequented aristocratic salons and worked with Nadia Boulanger. After the war, the new early-music boom relied heavily on his light, unmannered, natural sound, and Cuénod made several pioneering LPs - his 1950 recording of Couperin's `Lamentations' prompted Stravinsky to ask him to sing in the premiere of `The Rake's Progress'. Opera has been a constant thread, but at the heart of Cuénod's repertoire is French song - he knew and worked with Honegger, Auric, Roussel, Poulenc and others.

Though he didn't know Mme. Lehmann personally he has written letters to the Foundation recalling specific performances that he enjoyed both in Vienna and Paris in the 1930s.

Mike Richter writes the following: Anyone familiar with French opera must know of Hugues Cuénod, the great, Swiss-born leggiero tenor of the Opéra. Like his successor, Michel Sénéchal (25 years younger), Cuenod's career extended far beyond the comprimario rôles of opera. He was also noted in concert, singing exquisitely in English, German and Italian as well as in his native French. His style is unquestionably French and his voice has the characteristic softness and fluidity of that land's most lyric instruments.

He did sing at the Met, though his debut was a bit later than that of most: he was 85 when he took that stage as the Emperor Altoum in Turandot. Despite the delicacy of Cuénod's production, he was easily heard even in the most demanding venues and was a mainstay at Glyndebourne in over 470 performances. Of course, he did have the advantage of sixty-year career to amass such a total.