Édouard de Reszke

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Édouard de Reszke as Mefistofeles in Gounod's opera Faust

Édouard de Reszke, originally Edward, (22 December 1853 – 25 May 1917) was a Polish bass from Warsaw. Born with an impressive natural voice and equipped with compelling histrionic skills, he became one of the most illustrious opera singers active in Europe and America during the late-Victorian era.

Career

Édouard de Reszke was born into a well-to-do and cultured family in Warsaw, where he first learned to sing. He spent four years in Italy, studying singing first with Stella and Alba in Milan and later the retired baritone Filippo Coletti. He later went to Paris to study with Giovanni Sbriglia, who was also his brother's teacher. Initially, he did not want to become an operatic performer but at the urging of his younger sister, Josephine (Józefina), he accepted an engagement with the Paris Opéra. He was chosen by the composer Giuseppe Verdi to make his debut in the first Paris performance of Aida on 22 April 1876, appearing under the composer's baton as the King of Egypt.

De Reszke's older brother was the renowned lyric-dramatic tenor Jean de Reszke (1850–1925), with whom he would sing often in Paris, London and New York City during the course of the next two decades. In 1887, for example, the brothers performed together in the 500th performance of Gounod's Faust at the Paris Opéra.

Josephine, Edouard and Jean's sister, also embarked on a career as an opera singer in Paris but she retired early from the stage after marrying an aristocrat while at the height of her powers. (Another sibling, Victor de Reszke, manifested more moderate talents as a vocalist.)

Between the start of 1880 and the end of 1900, Édouard de Reszke appeared on more than 300 occasions at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, performing a wide range of roles in French, German and Italian operas, including works by Wagner, Verdi, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Ponchielli, Gounod, Meyerbeer, Flotow and Mozart.

He was a huge favourite, too, with audiences at New York's Metropolitan Opera during the same era. (His only serious bass rival at the Met and Covent Garden was the elegant French virtuoso Pol Plançon [1851–1914]; but the Frenchman, unlike de Reszke, barely touched Wagnerian opera.) He also sang in Chicago in 1891 and, in 1879–1881, at La Scala, Milan. In 1903, he retired from the stage after his once superlative voice developed technical difficulties and went into a swift decline.

De Reszke taught singing for a while in London before returning to his estate in Poland, where he was adversely affected by the outbreak of World War I in Europe in 1914. Cut off from his brother by the fighting, he died on 25 May 1917 at a house in Garnek, near Częstochowa, Poland. His grave is to be found at Borowno in that country.

Recordings

A tall, genial man, de Reszke possessed a big, smooth, flexible and ripe-toned voice that matched his imposing physique and extroverted personality. He could sing masterfully at all dynamic levels, according to the opera critic Herman Klein, and was additionally blessed with a magnetic stage presence. During his prime, he was equally adroit at interpreting dramatic and comedic roles.

Regrettably, de Reske made only three records for commercial release. These somewhat disappointing discs were recorded by the Columbia Phonograph Company in 1903. By this date, as critic Michael Scott notes in Volume One of The Record of Singing (Duckworth, London, 1977), his voice was in a severe state of deterioration caused by years of overwork and abuse, as well as the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle that had featured too much food, drink and conviviality. The best of his three Columbia discs is considered to be the Porter Song from Flotow's Martha, performed in Italian, on which he delivers a fine trill.

De Reszke can also be heard singing briefly and dimly, but in seemingly more sonorous voice, on some of the crude Mapleson Cylinders that were recorded live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera at the dawn of the 20th century. All his extant recordings are available on CD re-issues.