Description

FANNY HELDY (ATH, HAINAUT, BELGIUM, 29 FEBRUARY, 1888 – NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, FRANCE, 13 DECEMBER, 1973)

Her real name was Marguerite-Virginie Emma Clementine Deceuninck. Her father was Belgian, and her mother was English. She received her education at the Conservatory of Liège and made her debut in 1910 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels as Elena in Ivan le Terrible by Gunsbourg. She remained there for two seasons, then performed in Vichy and Aix-les-Bains before being engaged in 1917 by the Opéra-Comique in Paris. There, she made her debut as Violetta in La Traviata. For more than twenty years, she was a soloist at this opera house. In 1920, she also joined the Paris Grand Opéra, debuting as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette by C. Gounod.

At the Paris Grand Opéra, she participated in several world premieres: on March 14, 1921, in Antar by Gabriel Dupont; on October 23, 1924, in Nerto by Charles-Marie Widor; on January 12, 1928, in La Tour de Feu by Sylvio Lazzari; on May 15, 1929, in Persée et Andromède by Jacques Ibert; and on March 21, 1935, in Le Marchand de Venise by Reynaldo Hahn. At the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, she appeared on March 11, 1937, in the premiere of L’Aiglon by Honegger and Ibert, a role that was composed specifically for her.

In 1923, she was celebrated at La Scala in Milan as Louise in G. Charpentier’s opera Louise under Arturo Toscanini. In 1925 and 1928, she sang the role of Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande with similar success. She made guest appearances at the Covent Garden Opera in London in 1926 and 1928, performing as Manon in J. Massenet’s Manon and Concepción in M. Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole. In 1927, she was a guest artist at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

She retired from the stage in 1939 and lived with her husband, Marcel Boussac, at a château in the Loire Valley.

TRACKLIST

1. Antar (Dupont) Air de l’oasis 0317 Pathé, Paris 1921
2. L’Heure Espagnole (Ravel) Oh, la pitoyable aventure (w. Morturier & Favereau) DB1512 (32-1301) HMV, Paris 1930-02-01
3. Madama Butterfly (Puccini) Sur la mer calmée DB1513 (32-2109) HMV, Paris 1931-03-05
4. Traviata (Verdi) Quel trouble… Folie, folie DB1271 (2-033141), DB1271 (2-033140) HMV, Paris 1928-11-14
5. Bohème (Puccini) On m’appelle Mimì DB1513 (32-2110) HMV, Paris 1931-03-05
6. Louise (Charpentier) Depuis le jour DB1304 (2-033147) HMV, Paris 1929-05-23
7. Marchand de Venise (Hahn) Air de Portia (w. Singher, not named on label) DA4872 0LA422 HMV, Paris 1935
8. Marchand de Venise (Hahn) Quartette (w. Mahé, Singher & de Clezio) DA4872 0LA424 HMV, Paris 1935
9. Roméo et Juliette (Gounod) Je veux vivre DB1304 (2-033139) HMV, Paris 1928-11-14
10. Traviata (Verdi) Addio del passato DB1409 HMV, Paris 1930
11. Thaïs (Massenet) O messager de Dieu DA940 (7-33096) HMV, Paris 1927-11-08
12. Thaïs (Massenet) Ah, je suis seule… Ah, tais-toi DB1129 (2-033127), DB1129 (2-033128) HMV, Paris 1927-11-08
13. Hamlet (Thomas) Doute de la lumière (w. Journet) DB1609 (32-2580) HMV, Paris 1931
14. Louise (Charpentier) Depuis le jour DB1304 (2-033147) HMV, Paris 1929-05-23
15. Carmen (Bizet) parle-moi de ma mère… Qui sait de quel démon (w. Ansseau) DB1115 (2-034044), DB1115 (2-034045) HMV, Paris 1927-11-12