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The Russian-born soprano, Nathalie Wetchor, left her home in Russia after after the October Revolution of 1917 and immigrated to France.
Since about 1930, Nathalie Wetchor sang at the Opéra Russe, which had been founded the famous soprano Maria Kousnetzoff. In 1931 she appeared in a Russian season at London's Lyceum Theatre under Sir Thomas Beecham as a partner of great bass Feodor Chaliapin in Rusalka by Dargomizhky and in The Tsar's Bride by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. In Paris, she was considered a major concert singer and often sang in concerts of Nadia Boulanger. In Spain, she has performed on stage and in the concert hall. She was appreciated as a great interpreter of Russian song and the Lieder of Johannes Brahms. As oratorio singer, she devoted herself to a wide-ranging repertoire and was considered a major J.S. Bach interpreter. She was also choirmaster of the Moscow parish of the Three Hierarchs in Paris. After her marriage with the pianist Nicolas Kedroff, she performed some time under the name Nathalie Kedroff. Later she remarried a Dutchman and spent several years in Holland, then settled down but as a singing teacher in Paris. She moved to work at the Regional Conservatory in Rennes as a singing teacher. In her own house, rue Ange Blaise, she assigned one room to contain a small chapel consecrated to the Dormition of the Mother of God. Once a month she invited the former Moscow Exarch, Metropolitan Nicholas (Ieromin). A small group of Russian speaking Orthodox and a few French met periodically there with great discretion.
Recording: HMV, including Russian songs and Lieder by J. Brahms; some more recordings on small French labels. |
