En proie a la tristesse

THE MUSIC: Rossini composed the comic opera "Le comte Ory" for the French public, with its premiere in Paris in 1828. He wrote to a French libretto by Scribe and Delestre-Poirson, based on their own comic play from 1817. Rossini borrowed a large chunk of music from an Italian work he had composed three years earlier, "Il viaggio a Reims." This entrance aria for Countess Adèle is one of the borrowed pieces. The performance in this video by Louise Lebrun is slightly abridged, and does not end with an interpolated High E-flat. :-(

THE SONGBIRD: Louise Lebrun was born in Montreal in 1940 and studied at École Vincent-d'Indy with several teachers including Pierrette Alarie. She graduated in 1964 and was a winner in the 1965 CBC Talent Festival. Sadlers Wells in London contracted her for the 1964/65, and other European bookings followed until she landed at the New York City Opera, making her debut in 1970 as Gilda. She stayed with NYCO for three seasons singing a handful of performances of Konstanze, Susanna, Oscar, and Irme (to Carol Neblett's Louise). Then came a top festival trifecta: Queen of the Night at Glyndebourne, Santa Fe, and Salzburg (where in 1974 she replaced Edita Gruberova after just one performance; Lebrun sang the other five that season, I have no idea why). There was Juliette in New Orleans, Lucia in Mexico, Konstanze in Paris, and many bookings in opera, concerts, and recitals across the opera houses and concert halls in Canada.