Marie-Thérèse Paquin

Paquin, Marie-Thérèse

Marie-Thérèse Paquin. Pianist, coach, teacher, translator, b Montreal 4 Jul 1905, d there 9 May 1997. After studies in Montreal with Angéline Normandin-McNamara and Alfred La Liberté (piano) and Louis Michiels (theory), she went to Brussels in 1926 on a scholarship from the Ladies' Morning Musical Club. In Brussels she studied with Camille Gurickx (piano), Paul Gilson (theory), and Ernest Closson (aesthetics and history). On her return to Montreal in 1927 she became collaborating pianist to the Dubois String Quartet and accompanied such singers as Léopold Simoneau and the visiting Lauritz Melchior. She was orchestral pianist for the CSM ca 1936-53 and the MSO 1953-64.

Paquin taught 1951-71 and 1981-2 at the CMM, was coach 1978-80 for the McGill University opera class, and directed 1964-70 her workshop, the MTP Opera Studio. She also taught 1971-83 at the Banff CA and at the École Vincent-d'Indy and the École normale de musique in Montreal. She was president 1945-7 of the QMTA and has been active in such organizations as the CFMTA, the Ladies' Morning Musical Club,the PDA, and the JMC Orford Art Centre.

Her musical and linguistic training (Spanish, Italian, German), the latter acquired at the University of Montreal, led her to publish in Montreal, in single volumes, French/English translations of opera librettos. Each contains, in fact, four translations, one literal and one free in each language, the free ones approximating the phonetic patterns of the original language. The series, which appeared in éditions des Presses, University of Montreal, includes Don Giovanni (1974), La Bohème and Otello (both 1975), Madama Butterfly and Così fan tutte (1978), Tosca (1980), L'Elisir d'amore, La Traviata and Il Trovatore (1981), Le Nozze di Figaro (1984), Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Rigoletto (1984), Cavalleria rusticana/I Pagliacci, Don Pascale, Salome, and Il Tabarro/Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi (1985), and Aida (1986). To these operas were added Ten Cycles of Lieder (1977) and Airs et mélodies (1983). Paquin was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1980 and a Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec in 1986. She was awarded the 1982 Prix de musique Calixa-Lavallée