Germaine Lubin 1890-1979

A great French soprano,who had a sad experience as to possible collaboration with the Nazis during the war, but acquitted.(I have her own words below.).

She sings arias from: Tannhauser,Siegfried,Walkure,Tristan und Isolde,Freischutz, Sigurd (Reyer), Tosca, and songs as follows:

Chopin: Tristesse     Schubert: Erlkonig      Faure:  Au bord de l'eau

Debussy:  Beau soir and Je tremble en voyant ton visage.                 (55 min.)

For her part, Lubin denied all ties to Nazi Germany, and grew deeply bitter over her treatment at the hands of the French government. She once said that

I have suffered an enormous injustice. They curtailed my career by ten years — my own people! The fact is that I knew some of the Germans when they came to Paris during the occupation. This gave my enemies the chance to satisfy their envy … If I saw the Germans in Paris —and they had been more than kind to me— it was to save my compatriots. It was my way of serving my country at that particular moment. Nobody knows how many prisoners I had released … When I spent three years in prison, they confiscated my château at Tours and my possessions. Did anyone bother to ask me why I did not accept Winifred Wagner’s invitations to sing in Germany during the occupation? But my trial was a complete vindication: I was completely cleared. Yes, they gave back most of what they had taken …^[5]