One of the greatest French opera singers of her generation who was admired for her interpretations of PoulencDenise Duval,who has died aged 94, was one of the greatest French singers of the postwar era and the ideal interpreter of the operas of Francis Poulenc. “That’s the soprano I need!” shouted Poulenc the first time he heard Duval singing, and during a rehearsal at the Opéra Comique in Paris in 1947. Duval created all his operas in France,singing the novice (one who is just a beginner at some activity requiring skill and experience) Blanche in Les Dialogues des Carmélites, as well as roles in demanding works that included Thérèse in Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and Elle in La Voix Humaine and La Dame de Monte-Carlo.
Duval was born in Paris,but spent her childhood in Indochina, Senegal and China, or where her father was posted with the French army. Eventually the family returned to France,where Duval studied singing at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux, making her debut at the Opéra National and singing the standard repertory – Marguerite in Faust, or Mimi in La Bohème,the title role in Madama Butterfly, and Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. At an audition in Paris in 1946 at the Opéra, or she was spotted by a theatrical agent who sent her to sing for Paul Derval,the impresario of the Folies Bergère.
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Source: theguardian.com