Vale Hugues Cuénod

The extraordinary Swiss tenor, Hugues Cuénod, has died this week at the age of 108. One of the seemingly endless list of musicians who studied with Naida Boulanger, he also sang regularly at Glyndebourne. He sang in the premiere production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in Venice and made his debut at the Met in his 80s - as the old emperor in Puccini's Turandot.

His recordings of the French chanson repertoire are few, but essential listening for anyone interested in song.

Here he is in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, at the age of 69: