Pierre Duval

Duval, Pierre

Pierre Duval (born Ovide Coutu), tenor (born 17 September 1932 in Montréal, QC; died 31 May 2004 in Laval, QC). He took lessons from Frank Rowe in Montreal and from Rachele Maragliano-Mori 1956-7 in Rome and in 1958 at the Accademia Santa Cecilia. He continued his studies 1958-9 at the CMM with Dina Maria Narici. With the help of a Canada Council scholarship he studied in Rome 1960-3 with Alberto Volonnino and made his debut in 1962 at the Teatro dell'Opera in Stravinsky's The Nightingale. With the Théâtre lyrique du Québec he sang Des Grieux in Manon in 1967, Cavaradossi in Tosca in 1968-9, and Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de perles in the 1969-70 season. He had sung Nadir in 1964 for the Théâtre lyrique de Nouvelle-France, as well as Alfredo (La Traviata) in 1965. In La Presse (13 Jul 1966) Jean Vallerand described a concert appearance with the MSO: 'Pierre Duval is the consummate opera singer: he has unfailing courage, perfect technique and an amazing communicative generosity... Last night he sang splendidly, one after another, five of the most demanding pieces in the repertoire'.

In 1968 Duval was a soloist with the Cleveland SO under George Szell in Verdi's Requiem in Cleveland and New York. For the Vancouver Opera he sang the Duke in Rigoletto in 1967, and for the COC he sang Rodolfo in La Bohème in 1968 and the Duke in 1969. For the Opéra du Québec, he repeated the Duke in 1972 and sang Cassio in Otello in 1973 and Almaviva in The Barber of Seville in 1976. Duval's name became widely known through his Arturo opposite Joan Sutherland's Elvira in the recording of Bellini's I Puritani. He repeated the role at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna in March 1973 and also, during the 1972-3 season, appeared in Roméo et Juliette in New Orleans, Lucia di Lammermoor in Syracuse, and Rigoletto in Milwaukee. He has sung with several major US orchestras, including those of Chicago, the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, and has performed in Europe, Chile, and South Africa.

Duval sang the role of Paris in the Festival Canada (Festival Ottawa) production of La Belle Hélène at the NAC in 1973, in the festival's revival of the work in 1975, and in performances of it at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, and on CBC TV in 1976. He took part in a number of other CBC opera telecasts in the series 'Festival' and 'L'Heure du concert,' appearing in the 1965 Emmy-Award-winning The Barber of Seville and singing Roméo in Roméo et Juliette in 1971, Macduff in Macbeth in 1973, and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly in 1976. In 1978 he sang Faust at the Grand Théâtre in Quebec City, Charles VII in the COC production of Tchaikovsky's Joan of Arc, and Alfred in the Manitoba Opera production of Die Fledermaus. After the Fledermaus performance Donald Gislason of the Winnipeg Free Press remarked (24 Nov 1978) on 'the splendour of his voice,' which he compared with that of the Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti.