For Hugues Cuenod--in his 100th year

Midway along our road sometimes a voice
Sounds, prohibiting all heldenblustering choices

 Of timbre, overtones or fashions;
Fifty years back, when I first heard you sing
I thought: “The poems I’ve written lack for nothing
   But such clarity, such passion.”

With Nadia Boulanger when young, you went
Touring through languages and continents,
   Collegia, festivals and venues;
To countertenor from youth’s baritone,
You made each form, period and style your own,

From Frescobaldi, Couperin, Monteverdi,
To Neidhardt, Bach, Schutz’ Sacred Concerti
   Then Fauré, Debussy, Auric;
Di Lasso to “A Lover and His Lass,”
Josquin to Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress.
   Machaut’s Mass to Coward’s Bitter Sweet.

With an untroubled, easy grace and verve,
You’d fill in for a friend whose wrenched-up nerves
   Failed, sang through 60 years unchanged
By travel, time or untold cigarettes.
At 85, you called your debut at the Met
   “A little bonbon after lunch.”

“How could I lose my voice,” you were known to banter;
“I never had one”—just a dry, white, unmannered
   Mask tone with the bel canto breathing
That carried your song’s deep impulse truly
From mouth to nerve ends like a fine, rich Pouilly.
   Why not just say: one voice for all seasons.

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This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 22 Number 6, on page 39
Copyright © 2023 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com
https://newcriterion.com/issues/2004/2/for-hugues-cuenod-in-his-100th-year