Biographical notes:

Gerville-RTache was born in Orthez, in the south of France, into a wealthy and politically well connected family. She spent a part of her childhood in the French West Indies, where her father was stationed as a diplomat, but back in Paris she studied with Rosine Laborde and the legendary Pauline Viardot-Garcia. We probably have the latter to thank for most of what we hear on Gerville-RTacheÆs recordings today. Emma CalvT was overwhelmed by the young contraltoÆs voice, and arranged for her dTbut at the OpTra-Comique as GluckÆs OrphTe in 1899. She was only 17 years old.

She remained on the roster at the OpTra-Comique until 1903, and it was there that she created the role of GeneviFve in PellTas et MTlisande (1902), but the young Gerville-RTache faced formidable competition from Marie Delna. There, and at the Paris OpTra as well, Delna was well known for jealously hoarding the larger contralto roles with the ferocity of Cerberus guarding the River Styx. Blanche Deschamps-Jehin was similarly entrenched (and married to the principal conductor) at Monte Carlo, so Gerville-RTache was obliged to cast her sights outside of France for any measure of personal opportunity or acclaim.

In the early years of the 20th century, she sang in Brussels and at Covent Garden before her dTbut with the Manhattan Opera Company in New York as La Cieca in La Gioconda (1907), with one of those "Golden Age" dream casts including Lillian Nordica, Giovanni Zenatello, Mario Ancona, Adamo Didur and Eleanora de Cisneros. At the Manhattan, she was well received in MassenetÆs La Navarraise , not so successful as Carmen and fearsome as Klytemnestra in Elektra, but she created a true sensation in Samson et Dalila.

Her interpretation of this role quickly established the popularity of Saint-SadnsÆ opera in America, and the critic Philip Hale ranked her Dalila "on a par with de ReszkeÆs RomTo, de LuciaÆs Canio, TerninaÆs Isolde, CalvTÆs Carmen and MaurelÆs Iago."

When the Met and its trustees raised sufficient "hush money" for Oscar Hammerstein and the Manhattan Opera closed down, Gerville-RTache appeared with the Chicago, Philadelphia and Montreal companies, but mostly sang in extensive recital tours and as soloist with symphonies throughout the United States. She had taken up residence there in 1910 with her husband (the director of the Pasteur Institute in New York) and their two young sons. Her last hours of life found her besieged with an unbelievable combination of violent illnesses. Ptomaine poisoning triggered a ruptured appendix, which induced a miscarriage, and she died in New York at the tragically young age of 32.

Recordings:

She possessed the voice of a fine cello swathed in burgundy-colored velvet. A true, sonorous contralto with many of the better qualities of Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Louise Homer, remarkably amalgamated into a single human voice.

Gerville-RTacheÆs voice cannot but leave an impression on those hearing her, and sometimes the initial impression is not a good one when the listener is exposed to a "true" contralto for possibly the first time. The fact that she recorded unfamiliar music may also explain why some self-styled "experts" have used the word "disagreeable" when referring to her voice; she seems to have been not the correct nationality, nor singing from an acceptable repertoire, while similar sounding English contraltos are praised to the heavens. But in record after record (not that there are all that many of them), she displays a remarkable range which encompasses cavernous lows to ringing, apparently effortless high notes.

She brought life to arias from Paul et Virginie, Vivirande and LÆEnfant prodigue, and is compelling in excerpts from more familiar works such as Il Trovatore and Orfeo ed Euridice. Her only recording in German, SchumannÆs "Ich grolle nicht," is one of her finest and perhaps her most maligned by the "experts." Again, Gerville-RTache stepped out of acceptable bounds here by singing a piece not customarily included in a female singerÆs repertoire, with perhaps overly careful attention to German diction (the final consonants are distinctly separate syllables) and an orchestral accompaniment. The orchestra is of no importance whatsoever. Her splendid voice overwhelms the recording, and if it is not a classic example of the art form of lieder "by-the-books," it is a rousing souvenir of this fine contraltoÆs voice just the same. Hers was without doubt a voice to be cherished and remembered.

All of Gerville-RTaches surviving 18 recordings (including two sides she made for Columbia shortly before her death) were remastered by Ward Marston when he was doing transfers for the Opal CD label.