Suzanne Peignot

Suzanne Jeanne Marie Peignot , née Rivière (; 25 September 1895 – 25 April 1993), was a French soprano, a privileged interpreter of the group Les Six. Her friends nicknamed her la Reine des mouettes ("the Queen of the Seagulls"), an allusion to one of the melodies she successfully sang.

On stage or in the salons of the capital, she defends the music of Georges Auric. (Alphabet, June 5, 1923), (Trois chants d'été, February 13, 1928), Erik Satie (Socrates, June 20, 1923, at a memorable concert in 1923, where the composer, who was also the accompanist, got carried away in public against Henri Sauguet who had turned the pages on him badly!. She took part in conferences (including that of Darius Milhaud on 23 March 1925), toured in Brussels, sang in Compiègne with Jean Wiéner and Clément Doucet, and was noticed at a concert given at the École normale de musique de Paris: "Mme Suzanne Peignot had long been classed as one of the most beautiful voices and the best Parisian singers. But until now she was only heard as an amateur. She has just taken the dreaded step. She has just given a Recital at the Salle de l'École normale de musique, in public session. What was to become of it? Was she going to appear to us now that we had the right to be severe, below her worldly reputation? (...) Let us say it at once: the ordeal could not have been more favourable to the beginner. Mme Suzanne Peignot delighted us and, for two hours, held us under the spell of her exquisite voice and the most refined and penetrating interpretation. (...) It is a soprano descending to the mezzo. The interpretation reveals a most subtle sensitivity which is in tune with all the subtleties of the poems and the music, and translates them without preciousness, in the simplest and most spontaneous way." Her career accelerated: in 1930 she gave a recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (accompanied by Poulenc). She performed for patrons in Paris, the provinces and abroad. She created the Chansons de la vieille Chine by on 19 June 1931. In 1932, in the Conservatoire hall, she performed Cinq poèmes Pierre-Jean Toulet by Pierre-Octave Ferroud and Jet d'eau by Claude Debussy. In 1933, she performed Max Jacob's Four Poems by Vittorio Rieti and performed in the Salle Pleyel on 17 December 1933. On 16 December 1934, salle Gaveau, she gave the premiere of Poulenc's Cinq poèmes de Ronsard. In 1936, she gave a recital at the Musée Grévin. In 1937, she gave the Huit poèmes de Cocteau by Georges Auric.

The critics continue to be laudatory: "Suzanne Peignot has a well timbred voice, even, homogeneous, easy in all registers. Simply, with impeccable articulation, this singer knows how to give to the air of Zaïde's "Dors en paix," "Oiseaux si chaque année" by Mozart, a pure charm and the right accents. Her delicate sensibility allowed her to interpret Ravel's "Histoires naturelles" with poetry and all the desired irony. Interpreter of unpublished works by Nicolas Nabokof, Suzanne Peignot plays with the traps innocently set by the author who writes with a freedom like no other! Francis Poulenc's music, with its delicacy and melodic charm, also suits this sensitive and distinguished artist; her interpretation of the Cinq Poèmes was spiritual and warm. The virtuosos Mehudin and Kreisler. The singer Suzanne The Second World War forced her to leave Paris. In 1940, she took refuge in Cannes with her three children (including the future poet Jérôme Peignot, capable according to her "to tell [his] mother, on her return from the studio, that the B in the Air champêtre was not as good on the radio as at home".

Divorced in 1933, she remarried in 1942 to Henri Laubeuf, engineer and test pilot, with whom she lived until the latter's death in 1952. In 1955, courageously, she was hired by the Gaveau shop in the piano department. One day, without knowing it, Olivier Messiaen "congratulated the house for the competence of the saleswoman, the one he had thanked for having interpreted Le collier and La prière exaucée in 1935"".

The Quatuor vocal Suzanne Peignot In 1932, she created the Quatuor vocal Suzanne Peignot, with Germaine Cossini (contralto), Paula Fizsel (mezzo) and Suzanne Rouffilange (soprano). Conrad Beck, Pierre-Octave Ferroud, Darius Milhaud and Pierre Vellones wrote for them.

Francis Poulenc's muse From 1917 until his death in 1963, Rivière-Peignot maintained a deep friendship with Poulenc, who admired her talent: "She sings the Airs champêtres better than anyone else", he said in substance; he wrote again: "I composed the Airs chantés, the Poèmes de Rossard, those of Louis Lalanne for Suzanne Peignot. I don't know of a more sensitive interpreter. She is a born musician." He dedicated four airs to her: Airs champêtres (on a text by Jean Moréas, Attributes (on a poem by Pierre de Ronsard), La petite servante (on a poem by Max Jacob), and Il vole (on a poem by Louise de Vilmorin). She created and recorded the Airs chantés with the composer at the piano in 1966.

Poulenc's proverbial lack of enthusiasm for making his music work did not prevent complicity: "When they had not achieved a satisfactory result, he would only say to her, in the nasal and straightforward manner that characterised him: "You sang like a pig. Come on, let's do it again!".

Recordings Airs chantés, by Francis Poulenc, Paris : Pathé Marconi [DL 1966]