Today’s featured artist is, I hope, a name that some of you will at least have heard of: the French mezzo-soprano Germaine Cernay, born Germaine Pointu in Le Havre in 1900 and dying tragically young of an epileptic event in war-torn Paris at the age of only 43. Here is an artist who strikes a balance between poise and white heat, with a voice of exquisite timbre anchored by a flawless technique. Between making her debut at the Opéra-Comique in 1927 and her early retirement from her singing career the year before her death with the intention of becoming a nun, Cernay was a prodigious recording artist and a habituée of both the operatic stage and the concert platform. Today’s episode presents her in her core operatic repertoire (Debussy, Fauré, Mascagni, Bizet, Thomas, and Saint-Saëns), with a strong emphasis on the works of Jules Massenet (Werther, Don Quichotte, Thérèse, Le Cid, Hérodiade, Sapho). Cernay is also heard at the outer edges of the mélodie repertoire, singing songs by Charles Bordes, Xavier Leroux, and Georges Dandelot, alongside the more familiar Lalo, Chabrier, and Brahms, not to forget a smattering of operetta. Some of her strongest recordings feature stellar contributions by fellow singers Georges Thill, Arthur Endrèze, André d’Arkor, Roger Bourdin, and Charles Friant. In recent years, even without a sytstematic reissue of her recorded oeuvre, her reputation has only increased, and she is now recognized as a standard-bearer of the French mezzo-soprano repertoire.

Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.