Votre toast (Toreador Song)

Roger Bourdin, Baritone (1900-1973)
Georges Bizet: CARMEN
"Votre toast je peux vous le rendre"
Conducted by Gustave Cloetz
Recorded 1927

My personal opinion: With Viennese accent and in an inimitable manner, the famous tenor Julius Patzak once said: "Stimm brauchst kane, singen muast können!" ("You don't need a voice, you must be able to sing!"). This indicates, once again, good singing does not need loud and voluminous phonation (following the slogan of Nietzsche in 'The Gay Scientist', that anyone with a loud voice is almost incapable of thinking in subtleties). More important is an unmistakable timbre, musicality and a good sense for modulation and phrasing.
The French baritone Roger Bourdin (1900-1973), often confused with the flute player of the same name, belonged to the category of singers with slender but elegant voices. I heard him the first time as Dr. Miracle in the 1948 Cluytens recording of LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN with a stellar cast of magnificent French singers from the 1940s: André Pernet, Renée Doria, Vina Bovy and Géori Boué, Bourdin's wife. With her girlish timbre she was an ideal Antonia. Boué was also her husband's partner in the recordings of FAUST under Beecham (with the unknown and far too underrated Georges Noré), THAIS and Messager's VÉRONIQUE, conducted by Dervaux. Roger Bourdin's Miracle is not a superior demon with the usual dark and sinister villain-voice. He's a devil in disguise and appears on the scene as a seemingly old buddy with sympathetic voice and a smile in tone - the opposite of George London, Gabriel Bacquier or Samuel Ramey. Even in the duet with Antonia ("Ta mére?), he seems to be worried about the state of the young girl's health. Hypocritical he whispers "Écoutez", pretending astonishment when the mother-painting comes to life; a haunting caused by himself. Compared with the plurality of other gloomy performances, this interpretation is a welcome alternative, such as the recording is in toto.
As Athanael in Massenet's THAIS, Bourdin can not compete with the vocal power and sonority of Robert Massard and Sherill Milnes, but in contrast to Milnes (under Maazel), Bourdin emphasizes every sentence, every single word in the right spot. Maybe Bourdin sings the role not really nice, but his rendition is vivid and intense. The same applies to his wife Géori Boué as Thais and tenor Jean Giraudeau as Nicias. They all perform the opera as a conversation piece with music. In many French opera recordings of the 1940s, the sung interpretation based on the spoken word, and sometimes it seems, arias turn into 'chansons'. Therefore it is not a coincidence, in Cluytens' HOFFMANN the role of the servant Franz was sung or rather 'played' by the French actor and comedian Bourvil. Over the years, the art of delicateness vanished, and gradually powerful singing gained the upper hand, even in the intimacy of French operas. For instance the Italian sung WERTHER (1953) with Ferruccio Tagliavini and Pia Tassinari preserves more gallic flair than the French sung version with Placido Domingo and Elena Obraztsova (1979): Radamés and Amneris in the small German town of Wetzlar...
Bourdin's voice was not rich, and yet in an economic way very expressive. Unfortunately, for his 1947 recording of FAUST, conducter Beecham has chosen mainly the French premiere version of March 1859 without Valentin's prayer ("Avant de quitter ces lieux" was composed by Gounod for the first London performance in 1863 at the request of baritone Sir Charles Santley).
Also significantly changed the 1951 MANON with Janine Micheau, Libero de Luca and Bourdin as Lescaut. In this shortened performance, a narrator tells us the story. Fortunately, Lescaut's "Regardez-moi bien dans les yeux" and "O Rosalinda" survived, and once again, Bourdin's diction is polished and natural. It's refreshing to hear opera removed from the dust of staginess, and I'm sure you've never heard before the 'Toreador Song' from Bizet's CARMEN, sung by a professional opera singer, in such an unconventional way - and consider, the recording was made in 1927...