Ninon Vallin in Opera and Song

This Pearl issue is one of the few CDs devoted entirely to the great French soprano Ninon Vallin. Listen to the Lalo duet on Track 1 (one of the earliest and best recordings here) and you’ll hear a singer who knows perfectly how to maximize her own vocal resources, how to project every subtlety of the French language, and how to cast a spell. Most aspects of her art are well represented here and the transfers are exemplary. I live in hopes of finding a reissue of her recording of Reynaldo Hahn’s “La derniere valse”, a song I heard her sing in a recital many years ago.