Arthur Endrèze

An oddity recording by this native of Chicago (1893–1975), who became one of the greatest French baritones ever. After his retirement in 1946, he returned to the USA, teaching voice in Kansas City. He endured for merely two years in what had become a foreign country to him; he went back to his adopted though real home country, France, for another 25 years, and only at the very end of his life, he settled once more in Chicago.

This tenor aria was recorded on the radio in 1956, ten years after the end of his professional career. It's one of Endrèze's very few recordings in his mother tongue, and perhaps his only recording of baroque music. Towards the end, the once almost incomparable quality of this singer still shines through.