Lise Rollan - Zeller: DER VOGELHÄNDLER, Nightingale waltz 1959

THE SONGBIRD: Belgian soprano Lise Rollan (1923 - 2018) was born as Elisabeth Brinkhuysen in Liège. She studied music in Brussels and won first prize in two voice competitions there in 1944 and 1945. Rollan stood out at the general auditions at La Monnaie in Brussels singing arias of Rosina and Lakme and was offered a supporting role in the upcoming season -- which she declined, insisting on a leading role for her debut. The management agreed and Rollan made her debut there in 1946 as Gounod's Mireille. Other roles were Philine, Rosina, Lakmé, Melisande, and Ravel's triptych of Fire/Princess/ Nightingale. She left the company in 1950 and began to specialize in operatic concerts, operetta, and light comic operas (she performed in the Belgian premiere of Menotti's "The Telephone"). She married Belgian composer Emile de Radoux, who was also head of light music programming for Radio-Television Belgium. He provided opportunities for Rollan in her new direction of popular and variety music (international tours, concerts, broadcasts, and recordings).

THE MUSIC: Carl Zeller's "Der Vogelhändler" (The Bird Seller) is an operetta that premiered in Vienna in 1891. There are two soprano roles, but this selection is an arrangement of the tenor's nightingale song, "Wie mein Anhl zwangzig Jahr" -- a waltz from Act Two. Miss Rollan sings a soprano obbligato duet with herself as if she were both the bird catcher and the nightingale (or “rossignol” in this case since she performs it with French lyrics).

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