As mentioned in a previous post, as long as there are record collectors out there willing to digitize their finds, the artists themselves live on forever. This truth is perhaps epitomized by the magnificent French basso Pol Plançon (1851-1914), who was born before Napoleon's infamous coup d'etat and died just after the onset of WWI! Plançon is one of the earliest-born artists in my classical and operatic collection, as well as the only artist in my entire music collection of about 15,000 songs whom I can confirm has now been deceased for over 100 years.
Naturally, the extreme length of time between when he was alive, performing, up to now has resulted in some pretty significant changes in not only just music itself, but the very act of singing! Listening to Plançon is a truly wondrous experience - once the listener gets over the fact that s/he is listening to someone who has been dead for over an entire century, s/he instantly becomes aware of the major differences in his vocal styling and production compared to most of today's performers. The best way to describe this difference would be to take the voice of a lyric coloratura soprano, drop it down about two octaves, and the result would probably be very much like the voice of Plançon! Whereas most of today's famous opera bassos (regardless of fach) are expected to sing with a delivery of sound resembling that of an idling diesel engine, Plançon sings with a silky smooth, graceful delivery ideal for the many French art songs and lyric operatic roles that were being composed during his life.
Born in Fumay, he began taking voice lessons as a teenager from the retired tenor Gilbert Duprez (1806-1896). He modeled his vocal styling and overall technique after the famous baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830-1914), who had been an idol of sorts among Parisian operagoers of the day. In 1883, he received an invitation to sing at the Paris Opera, and was such a hit among audiences that he stayed there for the next decade. He then sang at the London Royal Opera House to full houses, and premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1893, spending the next 11 years shuttling between performances in the US and Europe.
He was friends with several of the most prominent opera singers of the day, including tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) and soprano Emma Eames (1865-1952). He was also one of the last vocalists trained exclusively in the bel canto tradition to make recordings, which he began doing in 1902 for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company, eventually moving up to the prestigious Red Seal label of Victor Records in 1903. He stopped recording in 1908 due to his voice beginning to falter, but gave periodic voice lessons and guest concert appearances until his death (presumably of lung cancer) at the age of 63. He is considered to be one of the last lyric basses in a marvelous French tradition that extended back some 150 years in operatic history. His body is buried in Paris.
This Parlophone collection is second-to-none in its remastering of Plançon's complete Victor recordings. While he was forced to utilize the crude acoustic recording method (since recording with microphones was still about 20 years away) which only really captured the mid-range of his voice, he recordings are of high enough quality that I was able to learn one piece originally performed by Plançon for my senior voice recital. The recordings do still contain some amount of wow and blasting (particularly on high notes), but they are not as distracting as one would expect. I highly recommend that opera enthusiasts listen to this compilation to better understand the performance history of some famous French arias (such as "Nonnes qui reposez"), and aspiring opera singers would do well to listen to (though not attempt to imitate) it to get an idea of how flexible and smooth lower voices can be!
Check out these clips from YouTube to hear him for yourself!
The songs in this compilation are as follows:
1. "Allons, jeunes gens"
2. "Au bruit des lourds marteaux"
3. "Cantique de Noël"
4. "Credo"
5. "De son cœur"
6. "Devant le maison"
7. "Die bieden Grenadiere"
8. "Embarquez-vous"
9. "En chasse"
10. "Enfant chéri des dames, des grisettes"
11. "In diesen heil'gen Hallen"
12. "Je dormirai dans mon manteau royal"
13. "Jésus de Nazareth"
14. "Laß mich euch fragen"
15. "Le cor"
16. "Le filibustier"
17. "Le lac"
18. "Le lazzarone"
19. "Le soupir"
20. "Le vallon"
21. "Le veau d'or"
22. "Les rameaux"
23. "Nonnes qui reposez"
24. "O Isis und Osiris"
25. "Ô jours heureux"
26. "Pro peccatis"
27. "Schon eilet froh der Ackermann"
28. "Si tu veux, mignonne"
29. "Une puce gentille"
30. "Vallons de l'Helvétie"
31. "Vi ravviso"
32. "Voici des roses"
33. "Vous qui faites l'endormie"
34. "Alerte! Ou vous estes perdus!" (with Emma Eames & Charles Damorès)
Download (118 MB, 160 kbps)êêCharles Damorès
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