Jennie Tourel: A Tribute To 2LP VG++/NM USA Odyssey AL 32881
(Tracklist:
• Rossini Nacquil all'affanno; Non più mesta...)
Tracklist:
• Rossini Nacquil all'affanno; Non più mesta, from Cenerentola.
• Rossini Una voce poco fa, from Il barbiere di Siviglia
• Rossini Cruda sorte, from L'Italiana in Algeri
• Rossini Bel raggio lusinghier, from Semiramide
• Bizet Carmen excerpts
• Bellini Sgombra è la sacra selva, from Norma
• Villa-Lobos Cancão do carreiro
• Ginastera Triste
• Nin Paño murciano
• Obradors Coplas de Curro dulce
• Chopin Zyczenie
• Chopin Niema czego trzeba
• Mussorgsky Songs and dances of Death
• Ravel Chansons madécasses
• Ravel Vocalise
• Debussy Trios chansons de Bilitis
• Bizet Adieu de l'hôtesse arabe
• Satei Le chapelier
• Satie Je te veux
Jennie Tourel was a Jewish-American operatic mezzo-soprano.
Background
Jennie Tourel was born on June 22, 1900 in Vitebsk, Belarus. The details of her early life, not clearly documented, were invented in various ways (some of her own design) in numerous sources. Tourel's father was a banker, and the Jewish Davidovich (later Davidson) family lived comfortably in prerevolutionary Russia until they were forced to flee in 1918. They eventually settled in Paris.
Education
Jennie had begun study of the piano at an early age, and in Paris she embarked upon voice studies with Reynaldo Hahn and Anna El-Tour. (The names of her earlier teachers and the dates of her formative musical studies are not known. ) Tourel later disputed the story that her stage name, "Tourel, " was an anagram of her teacher's name, El-Tour. While in Paris she also studied with the lieder singer Maria Freund, whose influence she acknowledged as significant in the development of her interpretive style. A mezzo-soprano, Tourel had a wide range that extended from low G to high C.
Career
Her first documented stage debut in Paris was at the Opéra Russe in 1931, when she sang the role of the Polovtsian Maiden in Borodin's Prince Igor. The Opéra's conductor, Emil Cooper, was instrumental in bringing Tourel to America, where she appeared with the Chicago Civil Opera during the 1930-1931 season, singing in Ernest Moret's Lorenzaccio and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.
Tourel first sang her most famous part, the title role in Bizet's opera Carmen, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1933. Thereafter she appeared regularly in this role and in other prominent mezzo-soprano roles (such as Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Charlotte in Massenet's Werther), in Parisian and other European houses throughout the 1930's and 1940's.
Her New York City Metropolitan Opera House (the MET) debut took place in 1937 in Thomas's Mignon. Following her MET debut, Tourel achieved increasing prominence on the American stage, primarily in concert and recital venues. In October 1942, she sang under Toscanini in Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette in a special New York Philharmonic centenary performance. This was followed by appearances under Koussevitzky (in Debussy's La Damoiselle élue on December 4, 1942) and Stokowski (in the American premiere of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky Contata in 1943).
Tourel made her U. S. recital debut in New York City's Town Hall in November 1943. Her program, which was typical of her recital programs throughout her career, displayed her wide-ranging repertoire and interests, as well as her excellent command of languages. It included songs by Italian Baroque composers; songs by Mozart, Rossini, and Debussy; some Russian songs; and a selection of music by North and South American composers. The latter selections were unusual inclusions in recital programs at this time. Her Town Hall recital was highly acclaimed by the New York critics.
Tourel returned to the MET stage on March 16, 1944, appearing in Mignon. Her MET career was relatively brief; from 1944 to 1947 she sang the roles of Carmen, Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma, and Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. She was one of the few mezzo-sopranos to undertake performance of the latter role in its original coloratura version. It was during this time, in 1946, that Tourel became a U. S. citizen. Tourel performed the works of many twentieth-century composers, including those of Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Paul Hindemith, Francis Poulenc, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, and Hector Villa-Lobos. In 1951, she appeared in the role of Baba the Turk in the world-premiere performance of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. She had a long and close association with Leonard Bernstein, who frequently performed with her as either pianist or conductor. She sang in the world premiere performances of his Jeremiah Symphony (1944) and Kaddish Symphony (1963), as well as in the premiere performance of his song cycle I Hate Music. His cycle La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice and Piano (1947) is dedicated to her.
Tourel's teaching career began in 1955 when she was invited to teach at the Aspen Festival. She taught at the Juilliard School from 1963 until her death, and presented master classes at many other conservatories and music schools in the United States and abroad.
She was especially committed to furthering the cause of musical education in Israel, and she taught and presented master classes at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem from 1962 until her death. Among her students were Carmen Balthrop, Faith Esham, Barbara Hendricks, Peggy Pruett, and Neil Schicoff. Tourel remained active as a performer and teacher up until the time of her death from cancer.
In 1971, she appeared in the role of the Countess in a television production of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, and on October 26, 1973, she appeared in a speaking role in the Chicago Lyric Opera's production of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment. Because the year of her birth was believed to be 1910, most of the obituary articles state her age at the time of her death as sixty-three; in truth, she was probably seventy-three.
Virgil Thomson wrote that Tourel was "unequalled among living singers for the high concentration in one artist of vocal skill, sound musicianship, and stylistic flexibility. "
Connections
Tourel, open and giving as a performer, was reserved about her private life. She married three times; all three marriages ended in divorce. She had no children.
She married Bernhard Michlin (divorced); married Leo Michaelson (an artist, later divorced); married Harry Gross (a cardiac specialist), in 1955 (divorced 1957).