Hugues Cuénod

Hugues Cuenod was one of the greatest tenor vocalists in the history of Switzerland's music. Nearly six decades after making his stage debut in a 1928 production of Jonny Spielt Auf, at the Graumont Theater in Paris, Cuenod became the oldest person to make a debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York when he appeared in the Puccini-composed opera, Turandot. Born in Vevey, a small Swiss town on the shore of Lake Geneva, Cuenod studied at the Ribaupierre Institute in Lausanne and the conservatories in Geneva, Basel and Vienna. A year after making his stage debut, in 1928, Cuenod performed for the first time in the United States in the opera, Bitter Sweet. Focusing on his solo career in the 1930s, he performed in Geneva, Paris and North America and worked with French conductor, composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger. He taught at the Geneva Conservatory of Music from 1940 until 1946. Returning to opera in 1943, with a production of Die Fledermaus in Geneva, Cuenod subsequently appeared in operas at La Scala in Milan, the Glyndebourne Festival and the Covent Garden in London. His performance during the premier of Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress", in 1950, remains a musical milestone. Best known for his interpretations of Bach and Elizabethan songs, Cuenod is remembered for his light, natural, sound. ~ Craig Harris