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Cornélie Falcon

Cornélie Falcon (28 January 1814 [n 1] – 25 February 1897) was a French dramatic soprano who sang at the Opéra in Paris. Her greatest success was creating the role of Valentine in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. She possessed "a full, resonant voice"[4] with a distinctive dark timbre[5] and was an exceptional actress.[4] Based on the roles written for her voice her vocal range spanned from low A-flat to high D, 2.5 octaves. She and the tenor Adolphe Nourrit are credited with being primarily responsible for raising artistic standards at the Opéra,[4] and the roles in which she excelled came to be known as "falcon soprano" parts.[6] She had an exceptionally short career, essentially ending about five years after her debut, when at the age of 23 she lost her voice during a performance of Niedermeyer's Stradella.

Cornélie Falcon in 1835

Early life and training edit

She was born Marie-Cornélie Falcon in Le Monastier sur Gazeille (Velay) to Pierre Falcon, a master-tailor and his wife Edmée-Cornélie. Falcon was one of three children; her sister Jenny Falcon was to marry a Russian nobleman and appear on the stage at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.[7] Cornélie was enrolled at the Paris Conservatory from 1827 to 1831.[8] There she first studied with Felice Pellegrini and François-Louis Henry, and later with Marco Bordogni and Adolphe Nourrit.[4] She won a second prize in solfège in 1829, a first prize in vocalization (vocalisation) in 1830, and a first prize in singing (chant) in 1831.[9]

Debut in Robert le diable edit

At the invitation of Nourrit she made her debut at the age of 18 at the Opéra as Alice in the 41st performance of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable (20 July 1832). The cast included Nourrit and Julie Dorus (who had premiered the role in 1830[10]). The director of the Opéra, Louis Véron, had made certain there was plenty of advance publicity, and the auditorium was packed. The audience included the composers Rossini, Berlioz, Cherubini, Halévy, and Auber, the singers Maria Malibran, Caroline Branchu, and Giulia Grisi, and two of France's greatest actresses from the Comédie-Française, Mademoiselle Mars and Mademoiselle Georges. Other audience members included the painters Honoré Daumier and Ary Scheffer, the librettist Eugène Scribe, and the critics and writers Théophile Gautier, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, and Alfred de Musset.[11] Although understandably suffering from stage fright, Falcon managed to sing her first aria without error, and finished her role with "ease and competence."[12] Her tragic demeanor and dark looks were highly appropriate to the part,[12] and she made a vivid impression on the public.[13]

Meyerbeer himself came to Paris to see Falcon as Alice, but after her fifth performance on 24 August she had to withdraw due to illness, and he did not get to hear her until 17 September.[14] The following day Meyerbeer wrote to his wife: "The house was as full as it ever could be, 8700 francs (without subscription) and many people could not find seats. The performance was ... so fresh ... like the first performance of the work, not a trace of being played out. About Falcon I dare not reach any definite conclusion, ... only it is evident that she has a strong and beautiful voice, not without agility, at the same time that she is a vividly expressive (but somewhat overcharged) actress. Unfortunately her intonation is not completely pure, and I fear she will never overcome these weaknesses. In sum, I think that she could be an outstanding star, and I will certainly in any case write a principal role for her in my new opera."[15] Meyerbeer's new opera would become Les Huguenots, in which Falcon was to achieve the greatest success of her career.

Other early roles at the Opéra edit

 
Costume design for Falcon as Amélie in Act 2 of Gustave III

Her next role at the Opéra came on 27 February 1833 when she sang Amélie in Auber's Gustave III. Ellen Creathorne Clayton has described the performance as follows:

Unfortunately, the part of the Countess Amélie, with its powder and hoops, and pretty coquetry, was not suited to the dark and mystic style of Cornélie. "Alas, Mdlle. Falcon!" cried Jules Janin; "this young creature, of such great hopes, sang without voice, without expression, without exertion, without energy, without point." She was stifled amid the mad gayety, the whirl of the dancers, the glare and splendor of the scenes. The singers in Gustave indeed were "nowhere;" the dancers reigned supreme.[16]

Luigi Cherubini asked Falcon to create Morgiana in his new 4-act tragédie lyrique Ali Baba, ou Les quarante voleurs (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves). The premiere was on 22 July 1833, and, as Spire Pitou tells us, "his invitation was more flattering than substantial, because the part of Morgiana hardly constituted a real challenge to a young and ambitious singer".[17]

Falcon's next real opportunity to shine came with a new revival of Don Juan. This was a 5-act adaptation in French by Castil-Blaze, his son Henri Blaze, and Émile Deschamps of Mozart's Don Giovanni. The all-star cast included Falcon as Donna Anna and Nourrit as Don Juan with Nicolas Levasseur as Leporello, Marcellin Lafont as Don Ottavio, Prosper Dérivis as the Commandeur, Henri Dabadie as Masetto, Julie Dorus-Gras as Elvire, and Laure Cinti-Damoreau as Zerline.[18] Berlioz, who must have attended a dress rehearsal, had some reservations about Falcon's performance, writing in Rénovateur (6 March 1834):

Mlle Falcon, so energetic in Robert le Diable, was physically speaking, with her contenance "pale as a beautiful autumn evening", the ideal Donna Anna. She had fine moments in the accompanied recitative sung over her father's body. Why then did she all at once go off the boil in the great aria of the first act, "Tu sais quel inflâme"? Oh! Mlle Falcon, with those black eyes of yours and the incisive voice you possess, there is no need to be afraid. Let your eyes flash and your voice ring out: you will be yourself, and you will be the incarnation of the vengeful Spanish noblewoman whose principal features your timidity veiled from us.[19]

Berlioz was rather more frank in a letter in which he wrote "my position [as a critic] has not allowed me to admit that without exception all the singers, and Nourrit most of all, are a thousand miles below their roles."[20] Nevertheless, Falcon was admirably suited to the part, and her reception after the opening on 10 March 1834, was even more favorable than that which she had received for Alice.[17]

On 3 May 1834, Falcon sang Julia in a revival of Spontini's La vestale which was a benefit performance for Adolphe Nourrit. The cast, besides Nourrit as Licinius, included Nicolas Levasseur as Cinna, Henri Dabadie as the High Priest, and Zulmé Leroux-Dabadie as the Grand Vestal. The second act was repeated as an excerpt five more times that season.[21] Falcon's portrayal of Julia was received favorably.[22]

Concerts with Berlioz edit

Berlioz's admiration for the singer was considerable, however, and with Véron's permission he engaged her for one of his concerts which he organized that winter in the hall of the Paris Conservatory. It was the second in the series and was presented on 23 November 1834 with Narcisse Girard conducting. Falcon sang Berlioz's new orchestrations of the songs La captive and Le Jeune Pâtrie breton, and earned an encore in which she sang an aria by Bellini. The concert also featured the premiere of Berlioz's new symphony Harold en Italie, and the audience included the Duc d'Orléans, Chopin, Liszt, and Victor Hugo. With the new symphony and Falcon as the star singer, the receipts were more than double those of the first concert on 9 November, which had featured the Symphonie fantastique and the overture Le Roi Lear.[23] However, La captive, and not Harold, was the hit of the show, with the Gazette Musicale (7 December 1834) calling it "a masterpiece of melodic skill and orchestration."[24] Falcon also appeared the following year in a concert on 22 November 1835 which was organized jointly by Girard and Berlioz, in which she again sang Berlioz's Le Jeune Pâtre breton and an aria from Meyerbeer's opera Il crociato in Egitto.[25]

Further roles at the Opéra edit

 
Falcon as Rachel in La Juive
 
Falcon (right) as Valentine in Les Huguenots (1836), with Julie Dorus-Gras (left) as Marguerite, and Adolphe Nourrit as Raoul

Falcon's other creations at the Opéra included the roles of Rachel in Halévy's La Juive (23 February 1835), Valentine in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots (29 February 1836), the title role in Louise Bertin's La Esmeralda (14 November 1836), and Léonor in Louis Niedermeyer's Stradella (3 March 1837).[26] She also appeared as the Countess in Rossini's Le comte Ory and Pamira in Rossini's Le siège de Corinthe (1836).[8][27]

By 1835, Falcon was earning 50,000 francs/year at the Opéra, making her the highest paid artist there, earning nearly twice as much as Nourrit and three times as much as Dorus.[28]

Vocal demise and final years edit

However, Falcon's singing career was remarkably short. She lost her voice catastrophically during the second performance of Stradella at the Opéra in March 1837. When Nourrit as Stradella asked her "Demain nous partirons – voulez-vous?" ('We leave tomorrow, are you willing?'), Falcon was unable to sing her line "Je suis prête" ('I am ready'), fainted, and was carried offstage by Nourrit.[29] Berlioz, who was present, describes "raucous sounds like those of a child with croup, guttural, whistling notes that quickly faded like those of a flute filled with water".[30] Falcon resumed performances, but her vocal difficulties continued, and she gave her last regular performance there in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots on 15 January 1838.[6] She resorted to all sorts of bogus treatments and remedies[31] and moved to Italy for 18 months in the hope that the climate would have a beneficial effect.[13]

Falcon returned for a benefit at the Opéra on 14 March 1840, in which she was to sing selections from Act 2 of La Juive and Act 4 of Les Huguenots with Gilbert Duprez, Jean-Étienne Massol, and Julie Dorus-Gras. Her appearance was described as seemingly relaxed, as she received a standing ovation at her entrance. Her range in notes was critically diminished, and she could not perform in opera. She was said to have wept in response to her own vocal state. However, soon after it was discovered that her vocal abilities were now gone. As Spire Pitou relates: "She wept at her own pathetic fate but continued despite her inability to do much else besides make the audience regret the loss of her gifts. When she came to the painfully poignant words in Les Huguenots, 'Nuit fatale, nuit d'alarmes, je n'ai plus d'avenir' ('Fatal night, night of alarms, I have no longer a future'), she could not support the dreadful irony of the line. She had no choice but to retire ..."[32] There followed a few performances in Russia in 1840–1841, but after that, except for a few private performances in Paris at the court of Louis-Philippe and for the Duc de Nemours, she definitively quit the stage.[5][33]

Many explanations have been offered for Falcon's loss of voice, including the enormous demands of the music of Grand Opera, the "ill-effects of beginning to sing in a large opera house before her body was fully mature", Falcon's attempts to lift her range above its natural mezzo-soprano range, and nervous fatigue brought on by her personal life.[34] Benjamin Walton has analyzed the music written for her and has suggested there was a break in her voice between a' and b'. Gilbert Duprez, who sang with her on several occasions, speculated that her inability to negotiate this transition was a factor in her "vocal demise".[35]

Falcon married a financier, becoming Madame Falcon-Malançon and a grandmother,[36] and continued to live, reclusively, near the Opéra in the Chaussée d'Antin, until her death.[34] At the end of 1891, she agreed to appear on stage at the Opéra on the occasion of a celebration of the centenary of Meyerbeer, "with three of her surviving contemporaries". She died in 1897 and was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.[37]

Reputation edit

 
Costume design for Falcon in the title role of La Esmeralda by Louise Bertin

Having sung many of the important roles of early Grand Opera, Falcon was closely associated with the genre by contemporary audiences. The designation of the voice timbre "falcon", a dramatic soprano with a strong lower register (and lighter upper register) reflects this. Castil-Blaze described her voice in 1832:

...A range of two octaves extending from b to d''', and resonating at all points with an equal vigour. A silvery voice, with a brilliant timbre, incisive enough that even the weight of the chorus cannot overwhelm it; yet the sound emitted with such force never loses its charm or purity.[38]

Falcon's personal reputation was also relevant to her career. "Perhaps the only singer of the time to maintain a reputation for chastity", this perception carried over to appreciation of her performances of the ingénue roles for which she was famed.[39]

In 1844, Chorley wrote of Falcon as:

... the ill-starred Mademoiselle Falcon, the loved and the lost one of L'Académie.

She, indeed, was a person to haunt even a passing stranger. Though the seal of her race was upon her beauty, and it wore the expression of a Deborah or a Judith,[n 2] rather than of a Melpomene, I have never seen any actress, who in look and gesture so well deserved the style and title of the Muse of Modern Tragedy. Large, dark, melancholy eyes, – finely cut features, – a form, though slight, not meagre, – and, above all, an expressiveness of tone rarely to be found in voices of her register, which was a legitimate soprano, – the power of engaging interest by mere glance and step when first she presented herself, and of exciting the strongest emotions of pity, or terror, or suspense, by the passion she could develope [sic] in action – such were her gifts. Add to these the charms of her youth, the love borne to her by all her comrades; – and the loss of her voice, followed by the almost desperate efforts made by her to recover it, and her disastrous final appearance when no force of will could torture destroyed Nature into even a momentary resuscitation, – make up one of those tragedies into which a fearful sum of wrecked hope and despair and anguish enters. Hers is a history, if all tales are true, too dark to be repeated, even with the honest purpose, not of pandering to an evil curiosity, but of pointing out the snares and pitfalls which lie in wait for the artiste, and of inquiring, for the sake of Art as well as of Humanity (the two are inseparable), if there be no protection against them, – no means for their avoidance?[41]

References edit

Notes

  1. ^ Falcon's date of birth is given as 28 January 1814 by many sources [1] Other sources give her date of birth as 28 January 1812 [2] Braud 1913,[3] quotes the minutes des actes de naissance (minutes of birth certificates) of the Préfecture du département de la Seine, which read: "Du 29 janvier de l'an dix-huit cent quatorze, à midi un quart, acte de naissance de Marie-Cornélie, de sexe féminin, née d'hier à midi, rue de Béthizy, nº10, quartier Saint-Honoré, fille de Pierre Falcon, tailleur, et de Edmée-Cornélie Mérot, son épouse." ("On 29 January of the year eighteen hundred fourteen, at noon and a quarter, birth certificate of Marie-Cornélie, of female sex, born yesterday at noon, Rue du Béthizy, no. 10, Saint-Honoré Quarter, daughter of Pierre Falcon, tailor, and of Edmée-Cornélie Mérot, his wife."). Thus, her birth occurred at noon on 28 January 1814 and was recorded on 29 January at 12:15 p.m. Braud specifically repudiates the errors of earlier publications by Larousse and Malherbes which give the year 1812.
  2. ^ Chorley implies, and Jordan 1994, p. 69, explicitly states (but does not cite a source for the information), that Falcon was of Jewish descent. She is also identified as Jewish in "F. Halévy", Archives israélites,.[40] Not a single source provides any documentary evidence to corroborate this. Kelly 2004, p. 167, labels Chorley's rather indirect phraseology as "anti-semitic doubletalk", although nothing in Chorley's description suggests any such intention.

References

  1. ^ Bouvet 1927 (snippet view at Google Books); Gourret 1987, p. 33; Kuhn 1992, p. 219; Warrack and West 1992, p. 230; and Robinson and Walton 2011.
  2. ^ including Fétis 1862, p. 179; Pitou 1990, p. 449; Robinson 1992, p. 110; and Kutsch and Riemens 2003, p. 1388.
  3. ^ pp. 77-78 (footnote 2)
  4. ^ a b c d Warrack and West 1992, p. 230.
  5. ^ a b Robinson and Walton 2011.
  6. ^ a b Robinson 1992, p. 110.
  7. ^ Braud 1913, p. 77.
  8. ^ a b Gourret 1987, p. 33.
  9. ^ Pierre 1900, p. 751.
  10. ^ According to Desarbres 1868, p. 60, Julie Dorus alternated in the two roles of Alice and Isabelle, the flexibility of her voice enabling this vocal tour de force.
  11. ^ The list of celebrities in the audience is compiled from Smart 2003, pp. 113-114, Somerset-Wild 2004, p. 172, and Braud 1913, p. 80, who also lists many others, including Benjamin Constant, Gérard de Nerval, Eugène Sue, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve and Adolphe Thiers.
  12. ^ a b Pitou 1990, p. 449.
  13. ^ a b Fétis 1862, p. 179.
  14. ^ Pitou 1990, pp. 449–450.
  15. ^ Letter dated 18 September 1832 from Giacomo Meyerbeer to his wife. Quoted in Kelly 2004, p. 167, and Zimmermann 1998, p. 151.
  16. ^ Clayton 1865, p. 324.
  17. ^ a b Pitou 1990, p. 450.
  18. ^ Chouquet 1873, p. 398.
  19. ^ Quoted and translated by Cairns 1999, p. 71.
  20. ^ Quoted and translated by Cairns 1999, p. 66.
  21. ^ Lajarte 1878, pp. 63–64; Chouquet 1873, p. 382.
  22. ^ Kutsch and Riemens 2003, p. 1388.
  23. ^ Holoman 1989, p. 163; Cairns 1999, pp. 41–42.
  24. ^ Holoman 1989, p. 164. The orchestration of La captive has unfortunately been lost (Holoman 1989, p. 241).
  25. ^ Holoman 1989, p. 171; Cairns 1999, p. 99.
  26. ^ Parsons 193, p. 467.
  27. ^ Lajarte 1878, pp. 123–124.
  28. ^ Smart 2003, p. 114
  29. ^ Cairns 1999, p. 151, citing Bouvet, 1927. Braud 1913, p. 94, says it was the fourth performance, and gives a different quotation.
  30. ^ Quoted by Bouvet 1927 and reproduced in Smart 2003, p. 116.
  31. ^ Kuhn 1992, p. 219.
  32. ^ Pitou 1990, p. 451.
  33. ^ Braud 1913, p. 103.
  34. ^ a b Smart 2003, p. 116.
  35. ^ The suggestion of a break in her voice is credited to Walton by Smart 2003, p. 116, and the suggestion by Gilbert Duprez that this contributed to her loss of voice is mentioned in Robinson and Walton 2001.
  36. ^ Braud 1913, pp. 103–106.
  37. ^ Braud 1913, pp. 103 (note 2), 106.
  38. ^ Bouvet 1927 p.39, cited in translation in Smart 2003 p.116
  39. ^ Smart 2003, p. 113
  40. ^ vol. 23, no. 4 (1 April 1862), p. 188
  41. ^ Chorley 1844, p. 188.

Cited sources

  • Barzun, Jacques (1969). Berlioz and the romantic century (3rd edition, 2 volumes). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-03135-6.
  • Berlioz, Hector; Cairns, David, editor and translator (2002). The memoirs of Hector Berlioz (first published in a different format in 1969). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-375-41391-9.
  • Bouvet, Charles (1927). Cornélie Falcon (in French). Paris: Alcan. View formats and editions at OCLC.
  • Braud, Barthélémy (1913). "Une reine de chant: Cornélie Falcon". Bulletin historique, scientifique, littéraire, artistique et agricole illustré 3: 73–108. Le-Puy-en-Velay: Société scientifique et agricole de la Haute-Loire. ISSN 1153-2491. Copy at Commons.
  • Cairns, David (1999). Berlioz. Volume Two. Servitude and greatness 1832–1869. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-22200-7.
  • Chorley, Henry F. (1844). Music and Manners in France and Germany: A Series of Travelling Sketches of Art and Society (volume one of three). London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longman's. View at Google Books.
  • Chouquet, Gustave (1873). Histoire de la musique dramatique en France (in French). Paris: Didot. View at Google Books.
  • Clayton, Ellen Creathorne (1865). Queens of Song. Being Memoirs of Some of the Most Celebrated Female Vocalists Who Have Performed on the Lyric Stage from the Earliest Days of Opera to the Present Time. New York: Harper & Bros. View at Google Books.
  • Desarbres, Nérée (1868). Deux siècles à l'Opéra (1669–1868) (in French). Paris: E. Dentu. View at Google Books.
  • Fétis, F.-J. (1862). Biographie universelle des musiciens (in French), second edition, volume 3. Paris: Didot. View at Google Books.
  • Gourret, Jean (1987). Dictionnaire des cantatrices de l'Opéra de Paris (in French). Paris: Albatros. ISBN 978-2-7273-0164-6.
  • Holoman, D. Kern (1989). Berlioz. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-06778-3.
  • Jordan, Ruth (1994). Fromental Halévy: His Life & Music, 1799–1862. London: Kahn & Averill. ISBN 978-1-871082-51-7.
  • Kelly, Thomas Forrest (2004). "Les Huguenots" in First Nights at the Opera. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10044-0.
  • Kuhn, Laura, editor (1992). Baker's Dictionary of Opera. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 978-0-02-865349-5.
  • Kutsch, K. J.; Riemens, Leo (2003). Großes Sängerlexikon (fourth edition, in German). Munich: K. G. Saur. ISBN 978-3-598-11598-1.
  • Lajarte, Théodore (1878). Bibliothèque musicale du Théâtre de l'Opéra, volume 2 [1793–1876]. Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles. View at Google Books.
  • Meyerbeer, Giacomo; Letellier, Robert Ignatius, translator and editor (1999). The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer. Volume 1: 1791–1839. Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-0-8386-3789-0.
  • Parsons, Charles H. (1993). Opera Premieres: An Index of Casts/Performances, volume 15 in the series The Mellen Opera Index. Lewiston, New York: The Edward Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-88946-414-8.
  • Pierre, Constant, editor (1900). Le Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation. Documents historiques et administratifs. Paris: Imprimerie National. 1031 pages. View at Google Books.
  • Pitou, Spire (1990). The Paris Opéra: An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers. Growth and Grandeur, 1815–1914. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-26218-0.
  • Robinson, Philip (1992). "Falcon, (Marie) Cornélie", vol. 2, p. 110, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-56159-228-9.
  • Robinson, Philip; Walton, Benjamin (2001). Falcon, (Marie) Cornélie in Grove Music Online (subscription only, consulted 12 June 2011). Also in Sadie and Tyrell 2001.
  • Sadie, Stanley, editor; John Tyrell; executive editor (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5 (hardcover). OCLC 419285866 (eBook).
  • Smart, Mary Ann (2003). "Roles, reputations,shadows: singers at the Opéra, 1828-1849", pp. 108–128 in The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera, ed. David Charlton, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0-521-64683-3.
  • Somerset-Ward, Richard (2004). Angels and Monsters: Male and Female Sopranos in the Story of Opera, 1600–1900. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09968-3.
  • Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-869164-8.
  • Zimmermann, Reiner (1998). Giacomo Meyerbeer: Eine Biografie nach Dokumenten (in German). Berlin: Parthas. ISBN 978-3-932529-23-8.

External links edit

  Media related to Cornélie Falcon at Wikimedia Commons

cornélie, falcon, january, 1814, february, 1897, french, dramatic, soprano, sang, opéra, paris, greatest, success, creating, role, valentine, meyerbeer, huguenots, possessed, full, resonant, voice, with, distinctive, dark, timbre, exceptional, actress, based, . Cornelie Falcon 28 January 1814 n 1 25 February 1897 was a French dramatic soprano who sang at the Opera in Paris Her greatest success was creating the role of Valentine in Meyerbeer s Les Huguenots She possessed a full resonant voice 4 with a distinctive dark timbre 5 and was an exceptional actress 4 Based on the roles written for her voice her vocal range spanned from low A flat to high D 2 5 octaves She and the tenor Adolphe Nourrit are credited with being primarily responsible for raising artistic standards at the Opera 4 and the roles in which she excelled came to be known as falcon soprano parts 6 She had an exceptionally short career essentially ending about five years after her debut when at the age of 23 she lost her voice during a performance of Niedermeyer s Stradella Cornelie Falcon in 1835 Contents 1 Early life and training 2 Debut in Robert le diable 3 Other early roles at the Opera 4 Concerts with Berlioz 5 Further roles at the Opera 6 Vocal demise and final years 7 Reputation 8 References 9 External linksEarly life and training editShe was born Marie Cornelie Falcon in Le Monastier sur Gazeille Velay to Pierre Falcon a master tailor and his wife Edmee Cornelie Falcon was one of three children her sister Jenny Falcon was to marry a Russian nobleman and appear on the stage at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St Petersburg 7 Cornelie was enrolled at the Paris Conservatory from 1827 to 1831 8 There she first studied with Felice Pellegrini and Francois Louis Henry and later with Marco Bordogni and Adolphe Nourrit 4 She won a second prize in solfege in 1829 a first prize in vocalization vocalisation in 1830 and a first prize in singing chant in 1831 9 Debut in Robert le diable editAt the invitation of Nourrit she made her debut at the age of 18 at the Opera as Alice in the 41st performance of Meyerbeer s Robert le diable 20 July 1832 The cast included Nourrit and Julie Dorus who had premiered the role in 1830 10 The director of the Opera Louis Veron had made certain there was plenty of advance publicity and the auditorium was packed The audience included the composers Rossini Berlioz Cherubini Halevy and Auber the singers Maria Malibran Caroline Branchu and Giulia Grisi and two of France s greatest actresses from the Comedie Francaise Mademoiselle Mars and Mademoiselle Georges Other audience members included the painters Honore Daumier and Ary Scheffer the librettist Eugene Scribe and the critics and writers Theophile Gautier Alexandre Dumas Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset 11 Although understandably suffering from stage fright Falcon managed to sing her first aria without error and finished her role with ease and competence 12 Her tragic demeanor and dark looks were highly appropriate to the part 12 and she made a vivid impression on the public 13 Meyerbeer himself came to Paris to see Falcon as Alice but after her fifth performance on 24 August she had to withdraw due to illness and he did not get to hear her until 17 September 14 The following day Meyerbeer wrote to his wife The house was as full as it ever could be 8700 francs without subscription and many people could not find seats The performance was so fresh like the first performance of the work not a trace of being played out About Falcon I dare not reach any definite conclusion only it is evident that she has a strong and beautiful voice not without agility at the same time that she is a vividly expressive but somewhat overcharged actress Unfortunately her intonation is not completely pure and I fear she will never overcome these weaknesses In sum I think that she could be an outstanding star and I will certainly in any case write a principal role for her in my new opera 15 Meyerbeer s new opera would become Les Huguenots in which Falcon was to achieve the greatest success of her career Other early roles at the Opera edit nbsp Costume design for Falcon as Amelie in Act 2 of Gustave III Her next role at the Opera came on 27 February 1833 when she sang Amelie in Auber s Gustave III Ellen Creathorne Clayton has described the performance as follows Unfortunately the part of the Countess Amelie with its powder and hoops and pretty coquetry was not suited to the dark and mystic style of Cornelie Alas Mdlle Falcon cried Jules Janin this young creature of such great hopes sang without voice without expression without exertion without energy without point She was stifled amid the mad gayety the whirl of the dancers the glare and splendor of the scenes The singers in Gustave indeed were nowhere the dancers reigned supreme 16 Luigi Cherubini asked Falcon to create Morgiana in his new 4 act tragedie lyrique Ali Baba ou Les quarante voleurs Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves The premiere was on 22 July 1833 and as Spire Pitou tells us his invitation was more flattering than substantial because the part of Morgiana hardly constituted a real challenge to a young and ambitious singer 17 Falcon s next real opportunity to shine came with a new revival of Don Juan This was a 5 act adaptation in French by Castil Blaze his son Henri Blaze and Emile Deschamps of Mozart s Don Giovanni The all star cast included Falcon as Donna Anna and Nourrit as Don Juan with Nicolas Levasseur as Leporello Marcellin Lafont as Don Ottavio Prosper Derivis as the Commandeur Henri Dabadie as Masetto Julie Dorus Gras as Elvire and Laure Cinti Damoreau as Zerline 18 Berlioz who must have attended a dress rehearsal had some reservations about Falcon s performance writing in Renovateur 6 March 1834 Mlle Falcon so energetic in Robert le Diable was physically speaking with her contenance pale as a beautiful autumn evening the ideal Donna Anna She had fine moments in the accompanied recitative sung over her father s body Why then did she all at once go off the boil in the great aria of the first act Tu sais quel inflame Oh Mlle Falcon with those black eyes of yours and the incisive voice you possess there is no need to be afraid Let your eyes flash and your voice ring out you will be yourself and you will be the incarnation of the vengeful Spanish noblewoman whose principal features your timidity veiled from us 19 Berlioz was rather more frank in a letter in which he wrote my position as a critic has not allowed me to admit that without exception all the singers and Nourrit most of all are a thousand miles below their roles 20 Nevertheless Falcon was admirably suited to the part and her reception after the opening on 10 March 1834 was even more favorable than that which she had received for Alice 17 On 3 May 1834 Falcon sang Julia in a revival of Spontini s La vestale which was a benefit performance for Adolphe Nourrit The cast besides Nourrit as Licinius included Nicolas Levasseur as Cinna Henri Dabadie as the High Priest and Zulme Leroux Dabadie as the Grand Vestal The second act was repeated as an excerpt five more times that season 21 Falcon s portrayal of Julia was received favorably 22 Concerts with Berlioz editBerlioz s admiration for the singer was considerable however and with Veron s permission he engaged her for one of his concerts which he organized that winter in the hall of the Paris Conservatory It was the second in the series and was presented on 23 November 1834 with Narcisse Girard conducting Falcon sang Berlioz s new orchestrations of the songs La captive and Le Jeune Patrie breton and earned an encore in which she sang an aria by Bellini The concert also featured the premiere of Berlioz s new symphony Harold en Italie and the audience included the Duc d Orleans Chopin Liszt and Victor Hugo With the new symphony and Falcon as the star singer the receipts were more than double those of the first concert on 9 November which had featured the Symphonie fantastique and the overture Le Roi Lear 23 However La captive and not Harold was the hit of the show with the Gazette Musicale 7 December 1834 calling it a masterpiece of melodic skill and orchestration 24 Falcon also appeared the following year in a concert on 22 November 1835 which was organized jointly by Girard and Berlioz in which she again sang Berlioz s Le Jeune Patre breton and an aria from Meyerbeer s opera Il crociato in Egitto 25 Further roles at the Opera edit nbsp Falcon as Rachel in La Juive nbsp Falcon right as Valentine in Les Huguenots 1836 with Julie Dorus Gras left as Marguerite and Adolphe Nourrit as RaoulFalcon s other creations at the Opera included the roles of Rachel in Halevy s La Juive 23 February 1835 Valentine in Meyerbeer s Les Huguenots 29 February 1836 the title role in Louise Bertin s La Esmeralda 14 November 1836 and Leonor in Louis Niedermeyer s Stradella 3 March 1837 26 She also appeared as the Countess in Rossini s Le comte Ory and Pamira in Rossini s Le siege de Corinthe 1836 8 27 By 1835 Falcon was earning 50 000 francs year at the Opera making her the highest paid artist there earning nearly twice as much as Nourrit and three times as much as Dorus 28 Vocal demise and final years editHowever Falcon s singing career was remarkably short She lost her voice catastrophically during the second performance of Stradella at the Opera in March 1837 When Nourrit as Stradella asked her Demain nous partirons voulez vous We leave tomorrow are you willing Falcon was unable to sing her line Je suis prete I am ready fainted and was carried offstage by Nourrit 29 Berlioz who was present describes raucous sounds like those of a child with croup guttural whistling notes that quickly faded like those of a flute filled with water 30 Falcon resumed performances but her vocal difficulties continued and she gave her last regular performance there in Meyerbeer s Les Huguenots on 15 January 1838 6 She resorted to all sorts of bogus treatments and remedies 31 and moved to Italy for 18 months in the hope that the climate would have a beneficial effect 13 Falcon returned for a benefit at the Opera on 14 March 1840 in which she was to sing selections from Act 2 of La Juive and Act 4 of Les Huguenots with Gilbert Duprez Jean Etienne Massol and Julie Dorus Gras Her appearance was described as seemingly relaxed as she received a standing ovation at her entrance Her range in notes was critically diminished and she could not perform in opera She was said to have wept in response to her own vocal state However soon after it was discovered that her vocal abilities were now gone As Spire Pitou relates She wept at her own pathetic fate but continued despite her inability to do much else besides make the audience regret the loss of her gifts When she came to the painfully poignant words in Les Huguenots Nuit fatale nuit d alarmes je n ai plus d avenir Fatal night night of alarms I have no longer a future she could not support the dreadful irony of the line She had no choice but to retire 32 There followed a few performances in Russia in 1840 1841 but after that except for a few private performances in Paris at the court of Louis Philippe and for the Duc de Nemours she definitively quit the stage 5 33 Many explanations have been offered for Falcon s loss of voice including the enormous demands of the music of Grand Opera the ill effects of beginning to sing in a large opera house before her body was fully mature Falcon s attempts to lift her range above its natural mezzo soprano range and nervous fatigue brought on by her personal life 34 Benjamin Walton has analyzed the music written for her and has suggested there was a break in her voice between a and b Gilbert Duprez who sang with her on several occasions speculated that her inability to negotiate this transition was a factor in her vocal demise 35 Falcon married a financier becoming Madame Falcon Malancon and a grandmother 36 and continued to live reclusively near the Opera in the Chaussee d Antin until her death 34 At the end of 1891 she agreed to appear on stage at the Opera on the occasion of a celebration of the centenary of Meyerbeer with three of her surviving contemporaries She died in 1897 and was buried at Pere Lachaise Cemetery 37 Reputation edit nbsp Costume design for Falcon in the title role of La Esmeralda by Louise Bertin Having sung many of the important roles of early Grand Opera Falcon was closely associated with the genre by contemporary audiences The designation of the voice timbre falcon a dramatic soprano with a strong lower register and lighter upper register reflects this Castil Blaze described her voice in 1832 A range of two octaves extending from b to d and resonating at all points with an equal vigour A silvery voice with a brilliant timbre incisive enough that even the weight of the chorus cannot overwhelm it yet the sound emitted with such force never loses its charm or purity 38 Falcon s personal reputation was also relevant to her career Perhaps the only singer of the time to maintain a reputation for chastity this perception carried over to appreciation of her performances of the ingenue roles for which she was famed 39 In 1844 Chorley wrote of Falcon as the ill starred Mademoiselle Falcon the loved and the lost one of L Academie She indeed was a person to haunt even a passing stranger Though the seal of her race was upon her beauty and it wore the expression of a Deborah or a Judith n 2 rather than of a Melpomene I have never seen any actress who in look and gesture so well deserved the style and title of the Muse of Modern Tragedy Large dark melancholy eyes finely cut features a form though slight not meagre and above all an expressiveness of tone rarely to be found in voices of her register which was a legitimate soprano the power of engaging interest by mere glance and step when first she presented herself and of exciting the strongest emotions of pity or terror or suspense by the passion she could develope sic in action such were her gifts Add to these the charms of her youth the love borne to her by all her comrades and the loss of her voice followed by the almost desperate efforts made by her to recover it and her disastrous final appearance when no force of will could torture destroyed Nature into even a momentary resuscitation make up one of those tragedies into which a fearful sum of wrecked hope and despair and anguish enters Hers is a history if all tales are true too dark to be repeated even with the honest purpose not of pandering to an evil curiosity but of pointing out the snares and pitfalls which lie in wait for the artiste and of inquiring for the sake of Art as well as of Humanity the two are inseparable if there be no protection against them no means for their avoidance 41 References editNotes Falcon s date of birth is given as 28 January 1814 by many sources 1 Other sources give her date of birth as 28 January 1812 2 Braud 1913 3 quotes the minutes des actes de naissance minutes of birth certificates of the Prefecture du departement de la Seine which read Du 29 janvier de l an dix huit cent quatorze a midi un quart acte de naissance de Marie Cornelie de sexe feminin nee d hier a midi rue de Bethizy nº10 quartier Saint Honore fille de Pierre Falcon tailleur et de Edmee Cornelie Merot son epouse On 29 January of the year eighteen hundred fourteen at noon and a quarter birth certificate of Marie Cornelie of female sex born yesterday at noon Rue du Bethizy no 10 Saint Honore Quarter daughter of Pierre Falcon tailor and of Edmee Cornelie Merot his wife Thus her birth occurred at noon on 28 January 1814 and was recorded on 29 January at 12 15 p m Braud specifically repudiates the errors of earlier publications by Larousse and Malherbes which give the year 1812 Chorley implies and Jordan 1994 p 69 explicitly states but does not cite a source for the information that Falcon was of Jewish descent She is also identified as Jewish in F Halevy Archives israelites 40 Not a single source provides any documentary evidence to corroborate this Kelly 2004 p 167 labels Chorley s rather indirect phraseology as anti semitic doubletalk although nothing in Chorley s description suggests any such intention References Bouvet 1927 snippet view at Google Books Gourret 1987 p 33 Kuhn 1992 p 219 Warrack and West 1992 p 230 and Robinson and Walton 2011 including Fetis 1862 p 179 Pitou 1990 p 449 Robinson 1992 p 110 and Kutsch and Riemens 2003 p 1388 pp 77 78 footnote 2 a b c d Warrack and West 1992 p 230 a b Robinson and Walton 2011 a b Robinson 1992 p 110 Braud 1913 p 77 a b Gourret 1987 p 33 Pierre 1900 p 751 According to Desarbres 1868 p 60 Julie Dorus alternated in the two roles of Alice and Isabelle the flexibility of her voice enabling this vocal tour de force The list of celebrities in the audience is compiled from Smart 2003 pp 113 114 Somerset Wild 2004 p 172 and Braud 1913 p 80 who also lists many others including Benjamin Constant Gerard de Nerval Eugene Sue Charles Augustin Sainte Beuve and Adolphe Thiers a b Pitou 1990 p 449 a b Fetis 1862 p 179 Pitou 1990 pp 449 450 Letter dated 18 September 1832 from Giacomo Meyerbeer to his wife Quoted in Kelly 2004 p 167 and Zimmermann 1998 p 151 Clayton 1865 p 324 a b Pitou 1990 p 450 Chouquet 1873 p 398 Quoted and translated by Cairns 1999 p 71 Quoted and translated by Cairns 1999 p 66 Lajarte 1878 pp 63 64 Chouquet 1873 p 382 Kutsch and Riemens 2003 p 1388 Holoman 1989 p 163 Cairns 1999 pp 41 42 Holoman 1989 p 164 The orchestration of La captive has unfortunately been lost Holoman 1989 p 241 Holoman 1989 p 171 Cairns 1999 p 99 Parsons 193 p 467 Lajarte 1878 pp 123 124 Smart 2003 p 114 Cairns 1999 p 151 citing Bouvet 1927 Braud 1913 p 94 says it was the fourth performance and gives a different quotation Quoted by Bouvet 1927 and reproduced in Smart 2003 p 116 Kuhn 1992 p 219 Pitou 1990 p 451 Braud 1913 p 103 a b Smart 2003 p 116 The suggestion of a break in her voice is credited to Walton by Smart 2003 p 116 and the suggestion by Gilbert Duprez that this contributed to her loss of voice is mentioned in Robinson and Walton 2001 Braud 1913 pp 103 106 Braud 1913 pp 103 note 2 106 Bouvet 1927 p 39 cited in translation in Smart 2003 p 116 Smart 2003 p 113 vol 23 no 4 1 April 1862 p 188 Chorley 1844 p 188 Cited sources Barzun Jacques 1969 Berlioz and the romantic century 3rd edition 2 volumes New York Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0 231 03135 6 Berlioz Hector Cairns David editor and translator 2002 The memoirs of Hector Berlioz first published in a different format in 1969 New York Alfred A Knopf ISBN 978 0 375 41391 9 Bouvet Charles 1927 Cornelie Falcon in French Paris Alcan View formats and editions at OCLC Braud Barthelemy 1913 Une reine de chant Cornelie Falcon Bulletin historique scientifique litteraire artistique et agricole illustre 3 73 108 Le Puy en Velay Societe scientifique et agricole de la Haute Loire ISSN 1153 2491 Copy at Commons Cairns David 1999 Berlioz Volume Two Servitude and greatness 1832 1869 Berkeley California University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 22200 7 Chorley Henry F 1844 Music and Manners in France and Germany A Series of Travelling Sketches of Art and Society volume one of three London Longman Brown Green and Longman s View at Google Books Chouquet Gustave 1873 Histoire de la musique dramatique en France in French Paris Didot View at Google Books Clayton Ellen Creathorne 1865 Queens of Song Being Memoirs of Some of the Most Celebrated Female Vocalists Who Have Performed on the Lyric Stage from the Earliest Days of Opera to the Present Time New York Harper amp Bros View at Google Books Desarbres Neree 1868 Deux siecles a l Opera 1669 1868 in French Paris E Dentu View at Google Books Fetis F J 1862 Biographie universelle des musiciens in French second edition volume 3 Paris Didot View at Google Books Gourret Jean 1987 Dictionnaire des cantatrices de l Opera de Paris in French Paris Albatros ISBN 978 2 7273 0164 6 Holoman D Kern 1989 Berlioz Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0 674 06778 3 Jordan Ruth 1994 Fromental Halevy His Life amp Music 1799 1862 London Kahn amp Averill ISBN 978 1 871082 51 7 Kelly Thomas Forrest 2004 Les Huguenots in First Nights at the Opera New Haven Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 10044 0 Kuhn Laura editor 1992 Baker s Dictionary of Opera New York Schirmer Books ISBN 978 0 02 865349 5 Kutsch K J Riemens Leo 2003 Grosses Sangerlexikon fourth edition in German Munich K G Saur ISBN 978 3 598 11598 1 Lajarte Theodore 1878 Bibliotheque musicale du Theatre de l Opera volume 2 1793 1876 Paris Librairie des Bibliophiles View at Google Books Meyerbeer Giacomo Letellier Robert Ignatius translator and editor 1999 The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer Volume 1 1791 1839 Madison New Jersey Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ISBN 978 0 8386 3789 0 Parsons Charles H 1993 Opera Premieres An Index of Casts Performances volume 15 in the series The Mellen Opera Index Lewiston New York The Edward Mellen Press ISBN 978 0 88946 414 8 Pierre Constant editor 1900 Le Conservatoire national de musique et de declamation Documents historiques et administratifs Paris Imprimerie National 1031 pages View at Google Books Pitou Spire 1990 The Paris Opera An Encyclopedia of Operas Ballets Composers and Performers Growth and Grandeur 1815 1914 New York Greenwood Press ISBN 978 0 313 26218 0 Robinson Philip 1992 Falcon Marie Cornelie vol 2 p 110 in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera 4 volumes London Macmillan ISBN 978 1 56159 228 9 Robinson Philip Walton Benjamin 2001 Falcon Marie Cornelie in Grove Music Online subscription only consulted 12 June 2011 Also in Sadie and Tyrell 2001 Sadie Stanley editor John Tyrell executive editor 2001 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd edition London Macmillan ISBN 978 1 56159 239 5 hardcover OCLC 419285866 eBook Smart Mary Ann 2003 Roles reputations shadows singers at the Opera 1828 1849 pp 108 128 in The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera ed David Charlton Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 64683 3 Somerset Ward Richard 2004 Angels and Monsters Male and Female Sopranos in the Story of Opera 1600 1900 New Haven Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 09968 3 Warrack John and West Ewan 1992 The Oxford Dictionary of Opera Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 869164 8 Zimmermann Reiner 1998 Giacomo Meyerbeer Eine Biografie nach Dokumenten in German Berlin Parthas ISBN 978 3 932529 23 8 External links edit nbsp Biography portal nbsp Media related to Cornelie Falcon at Wikimedia Commons Cornelie Falcon at Find a Grave Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cornelie Falcon amp oldid 1211073188, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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