Mary Garden : Debussy, Fauré, Massenet.

   in Opera Now (Feb, 2012)
New on the Malibran label are some important recordings of French opera, French singers and a Scottish-born soprano famed for her French repertoire. The latter is the remarkable Mary (Marie) Garden, heard here in recordings made between 1904-5 and 1928, including some surpassing rarities. Most valuable of all are three of Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées and a short extract from Pelléas et Mélisande (she created the latter role) accompanied by the composer himself; but there are also excerpts from some of Garden’s other most acclaimed assumptions in the works in which she specialised – Louise, Thaïs, Chérubin (another creation), Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame, Carmen, Hérodiade, La traviata and Alfano’s …