Ninon Vallin

Ninon Vallin, whose civil name was Eugénie Vallin-Pardo, was a French soprano born in Montalieu-Vercieu in 1886 and who died in Lyon in 1961. Her career unfolded chiefly on stages in France, Italy and Argentina, and she is remembered both for her operatic work and for her interpretation of the French mélodie repertoire.

She trained in Lyon and made her debut in 1912 as Micaëla at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, a theatre where she continued to sing throughout her career. Her repertoire included roles such as Mimì, Mignon, Louise, Manon and Carmen. She sang at La Scala in Milan between 1916 and 1917 and, in the same year, appeared at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires as Gounod's Marguerite, a city to which she returned regularly for some twenty years. In 1920 she made her debut at the Paris Opéra in Thaïs. She also performed in San Francisco in 1934 and in Monte Carlo in 1943.

Beyond opera, she was a distinguished interpreter of mélodies, particularly songs by Reynaldo Hahn and arrangements of Spanish folk songs made by Joaquín Nin, in both cases accompanied by the composer himself. Her operatic recordings display a very distinctive timbre and a marked sense of style, and her complete Werther with Georges Thill is regarded as her finest recording.