On Stage (and walls) Melbourne: Happy Birthday Hugues Cuénod

June 26, 2009

Happy Birthday Hugues Cuénod

Hughes-Adhémar Cuénod (born Vevey Switzerland, 26 June 1902) is 107 today.

His ancestry is Swiss, with links to the English - the Marlboroughs no less - nobility. Cuénod lived his entire life at his family residence, Château de Lully. In later years he shared the home with his sister, who tended the estate orchards which provided fruit for a well known local liqueur.

Cuénod still resides there, supported by his life partner, Alfred Augustin (41 years his junior, you cradle snatcher Hughes!). In 2007, at the age of 104, Cuénod and Augustin signed a civil union after the changes in Swiss law giving same-sex couples legal recognition.

Cuénod made very famous Metropolitan Opera debut at the age of 80 (as the Emperor in Turandot) and continued to perform, more often as narrator of works like Poulenc's Histoire de Babar.

Cuénod can also be glimpsed here as the Emperor in his Metropolitan Opera debut in the 'riddle' scene between Eva Marton (Turandot) and Placido Domingo (Calaf).

Monteverdi's chaconne for two voices Zefiro Torna is sung by Paul Derenne and Cuénod, when he was a mere 35 years old. Cuénod's young voice is so free and responsive to this music, and already shows the interest in early music he carried his entire life. The famous composition teacher Nadia Boulanger is the pianist (!) in this endearingly inauthentic performance (notice that Derenne comes in too early at one point). Recorded in 1937 it comes from a set of 78 rpm recordings of Monteverdi madrigals and vocal ensembles that regenerated interest in his music. Cuénod continued to perform and record early music. One of most famous recordings was of the Couperin Leçons de Ténèbres (Stravinsky owned a copy of the recording and wrote his Cantata specifically for Cuénod's voice).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Hi, Do you know what recordings are available of Cuenod? I cannot find many other than the Nimbus records he made or those operas where he has bit parts; July 9, 2009 4:51 PM
Michael Magnusson said...: I can steer you to some of his recordings for Nixa in the 1950s (the Couperin Leçons 1-3, Faure "Bonne Chanson", a Schubert recital and Shakespeare settings by Arne and Purcell.; July 9, 2009 9:26 PM

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