(Dec 25, 1924 – July 15, 2013), Pianist, composer, accompanist and friend.
It must have been Pat Brinton who gave me his phone number. I had just arrived, and needed a place to stay in Paris during those Fall months. I was taking three lessons a week with her, although it was still unsure if I would stay. I went to meet him at his apartment in the Villa Laugier in the 17th arrondissement. The address consisted of several apartments surrounding a quiet park-like courtyard. It was late September, and it happened that Noël’s neighbor had a small studio on the ground floor available to let for one month. Noël took care of everything, and I got the keys. I was only told NOT to use the telephone for long-distance calls.
Among the persons who most helped me when I first embarked upon this country, Noël Lee immediately comes to mind. In fact, my life’s path would surely have been completely different had we not become friends; and with the serenity of experience, I can now retrace his vital help to me, step by step. Since it is now six years since Noël died, it seems appropriate to make a small, personal tribute to the man and to the artist.
Noël Lee knew everybody in the musical circuit and had an exceedingly good reputation, so his word was trusted. He was funny and also a brilliant music scholar. Here is what Nadia Boulanger, his teacher, said this about him: “Noël Lee is one of the finest musicians I have encountered. He is a composer with a true personality, who combines delicacy with strength. He has the highest sense of the piano’s resources, a structured sense of values, and complete understanding of the music at hand.”
When he learned that I already had some experience in Boston with so-called Early Music – as we used to say – he quipped, “Oh, you mean the music that existed before REAL music existed!” He also quickly learned that I was keen on contemporary music in those days, so since I was a strong sight-reader, I suddenly became a guinea pig for some of his vocal compositions. But he absolutely reveled in the Romantic composers, as his vast discography attests (over 200 records), and played for me to my endless delight vocal music by Brahms, Schubert, and Gounod. His musical insights were invaluable to me, notably because of the great difference in our ages. You could say he was from a different musical tradition (he was friends with Aaron Copland for example), so the penetrating questions he would ask me about an interpretation made me really think about or question what I had been told elsewhere, for example why do I use that rubato in that aria, and what is the reason. That kind of thinking prepared me for analyzing scores on my own, and that independence of spirit is what helped me appreciate the great singers of the past, those who made their own rules.
It was Noël who suggested to me to work with the legendary Irène Aïtoff, in the preparation of my Mozart roles. This amazing little lady and accomplished artist who knew Ravel and could play Mozart operas or ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ by heart was already in her 70s. I worked with her for two years much to my profit, and later when she played the recitatives for our ‘Don Giovanni’ in Bordeaux, and she even played Rameau for me for an audition at Aix-en-Provence. But back to Noël!
That first year he put my name forward when Radio France needed a speaking soloist for the Schönberg ‘Ode to Napoleon’ (it’s written in Sprechgesang for a male speaker). He had every possible contact with the people “at the Radio” and I was engaged thanks to him. This was only my second concert here, following my Cantata 82 ‘Ich habe genug’ at the Conciergerie with Jean-Claude Malgoire. I remember overhearing the negotiation: “He can’t possibly do it for less than 3000 francs” …I think that was roughly $600.00 in 1979, and for the previous concert I was paid 500 francs. The gifted and elegant pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier conducted, and we got along beautifully. Later, since the piece was now part of my repertoire, I was easily engaged a few seasons later by Pierre Boulez for a vast concert tour with the same Napoleonic work with his incredible “Ensemble intercontemporain,” one of many concerts I gave with them, touching music of many far-reaching styles from the 20th century: Ives, Brecht, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Knusson…
Noël had me over frequently for lunch, then we would make music together. Although he was the ideal collaborative pianist, he maintained that singer and pianist should both be of about the same age – Noël must have been at least 25 years older than me. But he shared freely every bit of knowledge, allowed me to practice and use his Steinway, even for a first demo tape of the wonderful song ‘L’Isle heureuse’ by Chabrier that I made with a pianist who was my own age – my first collaboration with Jacques, as a present for our friend Jacques Bourgeois.
I loved the way we could be chatting away in English and suddenly he would be able to change to French when the phone rang. I asked in all simplicity how he can switch without mixing the languages, and he said offhandedly “Oh, it’s just a matter of concentration.” Since that day, I have done exactly as he said, and am proud that after a lot of work I can now do the same in a number of languages. I needed the boost, the challenge. I needed the model.
Of course he was friends with William Christie, who had come to Paris 5 years before me, and Bill and I would sometimes arrive together, after a rehearsal with ‘Les arts florissants’ (I was a founding member of the group), with our arms full of seasonal vegetables. They both loved to cook, and the result was always amazing. Noël showed me how to make the perfect omelet, and could do so while telling me wonderful stories of Paris by Night in the late 40s, the 50s and 60s!
Noël gave lots of dinners, and at his table I learned to perk up my ears, and met some of the most influential people. One night in 1982 the subject between cheese and desert was Noël’s recent trip to New York. He had just heard rumors about a new “Gay Cancer” and this was the first time I heard that dreaded word. Another night the director of the Opéra-Comique (which was part of the Paris Opéra at that time) sighed distractedly, telling us that they were still looking for someone for the upcoming ‘Matrimonio segreto.’ It was a double cast and they were missing a Count Robinson. Here was my chance to pipe in that I had just done a production in Rennes and adored the role. The next morning I was auditioning at the Opéra-Comique for Michael Hampe from Cologne, and was asked to start rehearsing that afternoon! The takeaway from this story is that Vinson Cole, a most adorable tenor and colleague, suggested my name to his agent, and that is how I was engaged 11 times at the Opéra de Nice (ranging from Mozart to Rossini to Wagner) and for the inauguration of the Opéra-Bastille just ten years later, in ‘Les Troyens!’ Incidentally, the ‘Troyens’ performances led directly to my being engaged for the Opera Festival at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and to getting an agent in New York!
When I finally had my very own apartment, Noël offered me a gift, a set of scales for weighing letters to calculate the correct postage. That shows how practical he was, though perhaps he hadn’t foreseen the coming of the Internet. But later we did exchange emails, and I was very touched that he reached out to me right after the opening of a massive new staging of ‘Mathis der Maler’ (by Hindemith, one of his favorite composers) which I was in at the Bastille. This was just before he died. His words were supportive as always, and very helpful. When I later sent him a ‘friend’ request when I joined Facebook, I hadn’t realized that he was gone. That happened when I was performing in São Paulo, Brazil, and I hadn’t yet heard the sad news, which still leaves a sentiment of an open wound, and yet of a very liberating joy, for the stories I can tell do help me realize how we are all so bound together in our Destinies.
Post scriptum. In a moment of youthful stupidity, I must have called my parents for a few minutes on the off-limits telephone in that studio sublet in 1978. I actually could not remember. At the end of the month, the neighbor claimed his 50 dollars for the overseas call, which I contested. Noël settled the dispute by paying the bill, and never once asked me to repay him.
