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The soprano, Renée Defraiteur, began her training in 1930-1932 at the Conservatory of Lüttich with Mme Coppine Armand and was there also pupil of Nany Philipart (1933-1934). She supplemented her studies with Fritz Münch in Strasbourg and with Jane Bathori in Paris.
Renée Defraiteur was active exclusively as a concert singer and had an international career in this area. She performed solo parts in oratorio and sacred music works among other things in Brussels and Antwerp, in Brügge and at the Flanders Festival, in Paris and Lyon, at the Festival of Besançon, in Trient, Verona, Padua, Ravenna and Rome, in Eindhoven, Hilversum and Groningen, at the Viennese Festival Weeks and in Graz, most of all however in Switzerland. There she lived in La Chaux de fund and was from 1951 to 1962 a member of the 'Pro Musica Antiqua' Ensemble. In 1951 and 1954 she undertook with this ensemble tours to the USA. In 1949 she also participated in the premiere of the oratorio Golgotha by Franc Martin in Geneva.
Renée Defraiteur appeared as a soloist in the Passions, Mass in B minor (BWV 232), Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248) and Cantatas by J.S. Bach, in Messiah and Judas Makkabäus by George Frideric Handel, in Schöpfung, Jahreszeiten and Masses by J. Haydn, in Mozart’s Requiem, in the 9th Symphony and Missa Solemnis by L.v. Beethoven, in the Deutschen Requiem of Johannes Brahms, in Elias and Paulus by Felix Mendelssohn, in Les Béatitudes by César Franck, in Gloria and Stabat Mater by Francis Poulenc, in Verdi’s Requiem, in Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher and Le Roi David by Arthur Honegger, in the 4th Symphony of Gustav Mahler, in Illuminations by Benjamin Britten, in Stabat Mater by Szymanowski, in Canto A Sevilla by J. Turina and in Missa da Requiem by H. Sutermeister.
Within the range of the Lieder singing Renée Defraiteur also appeared in wide repertoire, including Lieder and Arias of Mozart, Enrique Granados, F. Poulenc, D. Milhaud, F. Schmitt, Béla Bartók, Benjamin Britten, E. Satie, H. Reutter and N. Lee. |
