Édith Tremblay

Tremblay, Édith

(Marie) Édith (Louise Ginette) Tremblay. Soprano, b Arvida (renamed Jonquière), Que, 11 Apr 1947; deuxième prix voice (CMQ) 1971. She studied voice 1964-71 with Guy Lepage and René Bianco at the CMQ and during the same period took part in a 1967 matinée of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and in such programs as 'Quebec sait chanter' on CFTM-TV and 'Recital de Quebec' on CBC radio. She won second prize in the 1971 CBC Talent Festival and went to Paris where she studied voice and solfège 1971-2 at the Conservatoire. She obtained third prize in the 1971 Concours international de chant in Toulouse as well as the Jacques-Rouché prize and the first prize in French art song at the 1972 Concours international de chant in Paris.

Under contract 1972-4 in Liège, Belgium, to the Opéra de Wallonie, Tremblay performed the roles of Musetta (Puccini's La Bohème), Charlotte (Massenet's Werther), Fata Morgana (Prokofiev's The Love of Three Oranges), Minnie (Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West), Fatme (Grétry's Zémire et Azor), Giulietta (Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann), Lisa (Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades), and Desdemona (Verdi's Otello). With that company and its orchestra conducted by Marcel Desiron she recorded Leonora's aria 'Pace, pace, mio Dio' from La Forza del Destino (1973, Alpha SP-6014). She was hailed as 'a singer with great style and an impeccable evenness of tone' for her performance as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly with the same troupe in Namur, Belgium (Le Progrès, 26 Oct 1973).

For the BBC in 1972 she sang the role of Élisabeth in the original French version of Verdi's Don Carlos, in a cast which included André Turp, Robert Savoie, Émile Belcourt, and Joseph Rouleau, with John Matheson as conductor (a BBC recording made in 1973 with the same cast was released on 4-Voce 23); she repeated the role in her US debut in 1973 with the Boston Opera Company directed by Sarah Caldwell. In a Radio France broadcast Tremblay took the part of Mimi in Leoncavallo's La Bohème and participated in a recording of Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief. The recording of La Bohème (1975), with the Radio France chorus and orchestra under Nino Bonavolonta, was released on CD in 1990 (2-De plein vent DPVCD-30-9010). In 1975 she was the soprano soloist in Verdi's Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and the next year she sang the role of the Second Prioress (Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites) in Tourcoing, France.

In March 1976 Édith Tremblay returned to live in Quebec City. She has appeared in concert in Quebec and Ontario and on CBC broadcasts. She has sung the national anthems preceding the hockey games at the Quebec City Colisée beginning in 1985.