Denise Duval, 94, Poulenc’s Favorite Soprano

“Denise Duval didn’t set out to be a muse. In 1947, … she was rehearsing Madama Butterfly at Paris’s Opéra Comique when a voice bellowed from the darkened auditorium, ‘That’s the soprano I need!’ It was Francis … For the next sixteen years – until the end of his life – Denise Duval was his colleague, his friend, his inspiration.”