Gérard Souzay's public appearances began in 1945 with recitals and concerts, including a performance of Fauré's Requiem in a centenary tribute to the composer at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
In recital, his first accompanist was Jacqueline Bonneau (who had been his contemporary at the Paris Conservatoire), but she was reluctant to travel and from 1954 onwards he formed a close musical and romantic partnership with the American pianist Dalton Baldwin which continued for the rest of his career.
The two completed three tours of Southern Africa (1958–1973) to wildly enthusiastic audiences[1] Souzay's exceptional linguistic gifts enabled him to sing convincingly in 13 different languages including Hebrew, Portuguese and Russian.
[2] His operatic career began in 1947 in Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, but it was not until the late 1950s that he extended his stage work – though even then it did not take precedence over his recitals.
His roles included Monteverdi's Orfeo, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Lescaut in Massenet's Manon, and Méphistophélès in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.
He spent the last years of his life giving master classes in the United States, Europe, and Japan: he was an inspiring teacher, preferring to work on phrasing and the mood of a song rather than French diction.
He was a keen abstract painter, and in 1983 he published a book Sur mon chemin: pensées et dessins[3] in which a selection of his paintings was accompanied by his written commentary, on art and life.
Much to the relief of admirers of the smooth and beautiful quality of his younger voice, he was not widely heeded, and many of his early recordings have been re-released to considerable acclaim.
Not everyone has agreed with Barthes's description of the style, let alone with the force of his argument, but these are strictures which would attach to many other singers besides Souzay and go to the heart of how vocal performance should be approached.