1830–1914, French

The French baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure – impressive on stage, with fine vocal discipline and strong dramatic sense – made his debut at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1852, singing Pygmalion in Galathée by Victor Massé (1822–84). Faure continued singing at the Opéra-Comique until 1859. Meanwhile, he taught singing at the Paris Conservatoire 1857–60. He performed at Covent Garden, London (1860–76), and at the Paris Opéra (1861–69/1872–76) where he created the part of Nélusko in Meyerbeer’s L’africaine (‘The African Woman’, 1865). Faure was also the first to sing the part of Rodrigo in Verdi’s Don Carlos and the title role in Thomas’s Hamlet. Other opera houses in which Faure sang were in Vienna, Brussels, Berlin and Monte Carlo. His last public appearances were in Marseilles and Vichy in 1886, the year he published La voix et le chant (‘The Voice and Singing’), his treatise on the art of performing opera.

Introduction | High Romantic | Opera
Personalities | Charles Gounod | High Romantic | Opera
Houses & Companies | Opéra-Comique | Early Romantic | Opera
Houses & Companies | Paris Opéra | High Romantic | Opera