# Round Three: The Bell Song. Pons and Mesple'



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Someone I admire suggested Mesple as a noteworthy contestant. Pons appeared on The Bell Telephone Hour 50 times. Needless to say there is no Bell Telephone Hour today!




Lakmé, Lakme, Act II: Dov'e l'indiana bruna?, "Bell Song" 




Lakmé - Acte II - N°10 - Scène et légende de la fille du Paria (Air des Clochettes) : Par les dieux inspirée... Où va la jeune Indoue (Lakmé, Nilakantha, Choeur) · Alain Lombard - Roger Soyer - Choeur De L'Opéra Comique - Orchestre Du Théatre National De L'Opéra Comique - Mady Mesplé


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Here is Lily Pons in a recently colorized version.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

It should be posted in The sexiest musicians thread.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Another twosome that I can do nicely without.
At least Pons succeeded in an easy, smooth delivery and of course her claim to fame trills and high notes even if she shorted the last note, were notable.
I was not familiar with Mesple -- never heard of her -- her voice was pretty enough but it seemed she had some rough passages, or at least, they did not come "trippingly off the tongue" whereas Pons made the aria seem smooth like the icing on a piece of cake.
I have never particularly liked Pons but, glory be, she gets my vote anyway.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

They were both great. I guess the ornaments slightly differed, but I am not able to keep track of that.
I will just choose according to which voice I like better. Pons is a lottle more girly and Mesple more feminine, but not old. I prefer Mesple.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

ColdGenius said:


> It should be posted in The sexiest musicians thread.


see also one of her movies, "I Dream Too Much" (1935). It shows up from time to time on TCM, usually at about 3:00 in the morning. That's Henry Fonda (her boyfriend in the movie plot; I believe there's been a Terrible Misunderstanding and they're on the outs for the moment, but won't be any more once he's heard her sing) and Adolphe Menjou in the box.






She wore a similar costume at the Met and it created a scandalette because _you could see her navel!_ When Barbara Eden appeared weekly in a similar rig in the 1960's sitcom _I Dream of Jeannie_ she had to have hers plastered over.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Both were famous *Lakme*s in their time, but I don’t care for their voice-type, so don’t much listen to this repertoire. I’ll toss a coin before I vote.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

For those who haven't heard of her (probably principally those in the USA) Mesplé was considered the leading coloratura soprano of her day in France. The majority of her career was in Europe, but she did appear at the Met as Gilda. She recorded extensively for EMI, quite a lot of operetta and Offenbach, as well as French song. Lakmé was without doubt her most famous role and her complete recording of the opera is regularly cited as a top choice. Indeed it was chosen when BBC Record Review did a comparison of all available recordings. I like it too and prefer it quite a lot to the somewhat somnolent Sutherland recording, made a few years after the recording of the _Bell Song _we were listening to recently.

Mesplé's tangy voice with its fast vibrato is quintessentially French and is no doubt something of an acquired taste, but it's one I've acquired over the years. Her French is of course better than Lily Pons and I think she makes more of the aria dramatically whilst fulfilling all the demands for bell-like clarity in the coloratura. It's Mesplé for me.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Why would Mesplé‘s French “of course” be better than Pons’s?
Pons was born near Cannes and trained in France.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Whenever I listen to Lily Pons I picture my grandmother's canary. It was yellow all over, that sweetly innocuous pale yellow that canaries like to wear while they twitter all day. I've never been much interested in canaries. I much preferred my grandfather's two budgies, one of them blue and the other green. They liked to sip his coffee and land on his head during breakfast. Mady Mesple doesn't make me think of parakeets, but I wouldn't mind if she did.

Now what were we talking about?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> Why would Mesplé‘s French “of course” be better than Pons’s?


I stand corrected. I somehow got it into my head that she was American possibly because so much of her career was spent there. Maybe I should have said that Mesplé's diction is better and she makes more of the words. At least it seems so to me.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I stand corrected. I somehow got it into my head that she was American possibly because so much of her career was spent there. Maybe I should have said that Mesplé's diction is better and she makes more of the words. At least it seems so to me.


She sang at the Metropolitan Opera for 30 years.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> For those who haven't heard of her (probably principally those in the USA) Mesplé was considered the leading coloratura soprano of her day in France. The majority of her career was in Europe, but she did appear at the Met as Gilda. She recorded extensively for EMI, quite a lot of operetta and Offenbach, as well as French song. Lakmé was without doubt her most famous role and her complete recording of the opera is regularly cited as a top choice. Indeed it was chosen when BBC Record Review did a comparison of all available recordings. I like it too and prefer it quite a lot to the somewhat somnolent Sutherland recording, made a few years after the recording of the _Bell Song _we were listening to recently.
> 
> Mesplé's tangy voice with its fast vibrato is quintessentially French and is no doubt something of an acquired taste, but it's one I've acquired over the years. Her French is of course better than Lily Pons and I think she makes more of the aria dramatically whilst fulfilling all the demands for bell-like clarity in the coloratura. It's Mesplé for me.


The only issue I can think of with this is that Pons was also French. Did she not ennunciate clearly? I don't know these things.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> The only issue I can think of with this is that Pons was also French. Did she not ennunciate clearly? I don't know these things.


I got that wrong. As I posted above I got it into my head she was American, probably because the majority of her career was there. But, yes, Mesplé's diction is better and she makes more of the words. She was also an accomplished rectalist and sang a lot of French song.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I have seen the movie about Florence Foster Jenkins, and it seems to me, they used the beginning of exactly this footage of Lily Pons, starting with the close up on the poster. Within the story, it was a motivation for FFJ to learn and perform the Bell song.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Tsaraslondon said:


> [Mesplé's] complete recording of the opera is regularly cited as a top choice. Indeed it was chosen when BBC Record Review did a comparison of all available recordings. I like it too and prefer it quite a lot to the somewhat somnolent Sutherland recording, made a few years after the recording of the _Bell Song _we were listening to recently.


I agree, but as an example of the degree to which poor Lakmé had been designated as out of date and just a joke in general in the US by the time the Mesplé recording came out (early 1970's), it went straight to budget label LPs (Seraphim) at its first issue.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

BBSVK said:


> I have seen the movie about Florence Foster Jenkins, and it seems to me, they used the beginning of exactly this footage of Lily Pons, starting with the close up on the poster. Within the story, it was a motivation for FFJ to learn and perform the Bell song.


Is that the US movie with Meryl Streep? I think there's a French one also.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

ewilkros said:


> I agree, but as an example of the degree to which poor Lakmé had been designated as out of date and just a joke in general in the US by the time the Mesplé recording came out (early 1970's), it went straight to budget label LPs (Seraphim) at its first issue.


It evidenty did better in Europe and, if anything, has gained a good reputation. It's hardly been out of the catalogue and is now available on Erato (which is now part of Warner).


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

ewilkros said:


> Is that the US movie with Meryl Streep? I think there's a French one also.


It was in English and Maryl Streep played Florence Foster Jenkins.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Pons has the type of voice that I find least interesting (and thinking about it, so does Mesple). There's some wonderful phrasing from Pons in the first part of this, but I still have the brooding interpretations of the two big guns from the last round and she can't compare with them. I'm not sure how I feel about her coloratura additions, does this aria really need them? She is superb in the coloratura passages and the bell imitations though. It's all somewhat wan and characterless, all in all she mostly bored me.

Mesple is both more natural and haunting in the opening coloratura section than Pons she's won in under a minute! The aria is better in French and her voice has more to it than Pons'. She also has more feeling and presence. I'm not sure who I would choose between Sutherland's first recording of the aria and hers, but Mesple is the clear winner in this round.

N.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I stand corrected. I somehow got it into my head that she was American possibly because so much of her career was spent there. Maybe I should have said that Mesplé's diction is better and she makes more of the words. At least it seems so to me.


I thought Pons was singing it in Italian...

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I thought Pons was singing it in Italian...
> 
> N.


It's not very clear, I grant you, but I'm pretty sure it's French.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> For those who haven't heard of her (probably principally those in the USA) Mesplé was considered the leading coloratura soprano of her day in France. The majority of her career was in Europe, but she did appear at the Met as Gilda. She recorded extensively for EMI, quite a lot of operetta and Offenbach, as well as French song. Lakmé was without doubt her most famous role and her complete recording of the opera is regularly cited as a top choice. Indeed it was chosen when BBC Record Review did a comparison of all available recordings. I like it too and prefer it quite a lot to the somewhat somnolent Sutherland recording, made a few years after the recording of the _Bell Song _we were listening to recently.
> 
> Mesplé's tangy voice with its fast vibrato is quintessentially French and is no doubt something of an acquired taste, but it's one I've acquired over the years. Her French is of course better than Lily Pons and I think she makes more of the aria dramatically whilst fulfilling all the demands for bell-like clarity in the coloratura. It's Mesplé for me.


I'm quite surprised people haven't heard of Mesple, don't they like French operetta? I first heard of (and heard) Mesple in the EMI Offenbach recordings and always found her voice as sweet and charming as it was French. I never associated her with more substantial fare and I'm grateful to you for the recommendation of her Lakme, which I bought after listening to excerpts on YouTube. I also have the Sutherland, which I wouldn't want to be without as I really like Alan Vanzo's Gerald and I'm not allergic to later Sutherland, unlike others here. That said, Mesple is my favourite in the complete role and it's some of the best French singing on disc. She's also Sophie on the Gedda/De los Angeles Werther. I wonder what she would have been like in some Bellini and Donizetti. She would have made a haunting Amina and would possibly have given Sutherland a run for her money in Fille.

N.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> It's not very clear, I grant you, but I'm pretty sure it's French.


I believe you and I wasn't paying enough attention to the text or diction (to be honest, her singing didn't command that level of interest from me).

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I'm quite surprised people haven't heard of Mesple, don't they like French operetta? I first heard of (and heard) Mesple in the EMI Offenbach recordings and always found her voice as sweet and charming as it was French. I never associated her with more substantial fare and I'm grateful to you for the recommendation of her Lakme, which I bought after listening to excerpts on YouTube. I also have the Sutherland, which I wouldn't want to be without as I really like Alan Vanzo's Gerald and I'm not allergic to later Sutherland, unlike others here. That said, Mesple is my favourite in the complete role and it's some of the best French singing on disc. She's also Sophie on the Gedda/De los Angeles Werther. I wonder what she would have been like in some Bellini and Donizetti. She would have made a haunting Amina and would possibly have given Sutherland a run for her money in Fille.
> 
> N.


According to Wikipedia, she did sing Amina, Norina, Rosina and Gilda. She also sang Sophie, Zerbinetta and the Queen of the Night, but of course most of her recordings are of French operetta. She also recorded songs by Poulenc, Satie and Ravel. I really like her recording of Ravel's Greek songs.


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