Jean-Baptiste Faure


Jean-Baptiste Faure was a celebrated French operatic baritone and an art collector of great significance. He also composed a number of classical songs.

Singing career

Faure was born in Moulins. A choirboy in his youth, he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1851 and made his operatic debut the following year at the Opéra-Comique, as Pygmalion in Victor Massé's Galathée. He remained at the Opéra-Comique for over seven years, singing baritone roles such as Max in Adolphe Adam's Le chalet and Michel in Thomas's Le caïd. During this time he also created the Marquis d'Erigny in Auber's Manon Lescaut and Hoël in Meyerbeer's Le pardon de Ploërmel, among seven premieres at that house.
He made his debut at the Royal Opera House, London, in 1860 as Hoël, and at the Paris Opera in 1861. He would sing at the Opera every season until 1869 and then again in 1872-76 and 1878. In addition, he continued to perform off and on in London until 1877 at venues such as Her Majesty's Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Among the many operas in which he appeared in Paris were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni as well as L'étoile du nord, Les Huguenots and La favorite.
He also made history by creating several important operatic roles written by such prominent composers as Giacomo Meyerbeer, Giuseppe Verdi and Ambroise Thomas. They included the leading baritone parts in L'Africaine, Don Carlos and Hamlet.
His last stage appearances are recorded as taking place in Marseilles and Vichy in 1886.

Voice

Faure possessed a dark, smooth yet flexible baritone voice, which he used with impeccable skill and taste. He was a sophisticated interpretive artist, too, and all these accomplishments combined to make him one of the most significant figures to have appeared on the French musical stage during the 19th century. He wrote two books on singing, La Voix et le Chant and Aux Jeunes Chanteurs, and also taught at the Paris Conservatory from 1857 to 1860.
The greatest of Faure's French heirs were the lyric bass Pol Plançon —who modelled his vocal method directly on that of Faure—and Jean Lassalle, who succeeded Faure as principal baritone at the Paris Opera. Both Plançon and Lassalle made a number of recordings during the early 1900s, and their cultivated performances for the gramophone preserve key elements of Faure's singing style and technique.
Two non-commercial—and possibly unique—brown wax cylinders exist that are thought to be private recordings of Faure singing at around 70 years of age. Though there is no specific documentation of these recordings, one—a rendition of "Jardins de l'Alcazar... Léonor! viens" from Donizetti's La favorite—begins with an announcement : "Le grand air du baryton!" Pathé and other French recordings from this era nearly always began with an announcement such as "Le sérénade de Don Juan, de Mozart, chanté par Lassalle, de l'Opéra!". The affectionate honorific in the supposed Faure cylinder recording only makes sense for a man of advanced years who is so beloved, celebrated, and revered by a general public that he need not even be named. The proliferation of documentation about Faure's standing as such points wholly and only to him. The choice of aria is almost certainly a clue as to the authenticity of the recording, as well. Alphonse of La favorite was one of Faure's most important roles—one with which he toured the provinces of France in 1877, just after his retirement from the stage. He gained enormous critical and popular notoriety from those who hadn't had a chance to hear him in Paris or London. His performances of this role would have left a lasting impression on the public and the press, and the aria was likely chosen for recording as an allusion to that time. A sampling of writing about Faure in this role and specifically this recitative and aria:

Other achievements

In addition, Faure composed several enduring songs, including a "Sancta Maria", "Les Rameaux" and "Crucifix". In 1876 he dedicated his valse-légende "Stella" to his sometime leading lady at the Paris Opéra, Gabrielle Krauss.
An avid collector of impressionist art, Faure sat for multiple portraits by Édouard Manet and owned 67 canvases by that painter, including the masterpiece Le déjeuner sur l'herbe and The Fifer. He also owned Le pont d'Argenteuil and 62 other works by Claude Monet. Part of his collection was kept at his villa "Les Roches" in Étretat, whose famous cliffs he commissioned Claude Monet to paint 40 times.
Faure died of natural causes in Paris in 1914, during the early months of World War I. According to his obituary in the New York Times, he had been made an officer of the Légion d'honneur. He was married to the singer Constance Caroline Lefèbvre.

Roles

This list of known roles contains duplicates where Faure sang in an alternate language. Years indicate the debut of the role into his repertoire.
RoleOperaComposerYear
AmletoAmleto Ambroise Thomas1871
Alfonso D'Este, Duke of FerraraLucrezia BorgiaGaetano Donizetti1876
Alphonse XI, King of CastilleLa favoriteGaetano Donizetti1860
AssurSemiramideGioachino Rossini1875
BorroméeMarco SpadaDaniel Auber1853
CacicoIl GuaranyAntônio Carlos Gomes1872
Charles VIIJeanne d'ArcAuguste Mermet1872
CrèvecœurQuentin DurwardFrançois-Auguste Gevaert1858
Don GiovanniDon GiovanniWolfgang Amadeus Mozart1861
Don JuanDon Juan Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart1866
DulcamaraL'elisir d'amoreGaetano Donizetti1864
FalstaffLe songe d'une nuit d'étéAmbroise Thomas1854
FernandoLa gazza ladraGioachino Rossini1860
FigaroLe nozze di FigaroWolfgang Amadeus Mozart1866
GaspardDer FreischützCarl Maria von Weber1872
Guillaume TellGuillaume TellGioachino Rossini1861
HamletHamletAmbroise Thomas1868
HoëlLe pardon de PloërmelGiacomo Meyerbeer1859
HoëlDinorah Giacomo Meyerbeer1860
IagoOtelloGioachino Rossini1870
Il conte di NeversGli Ugonotti Giacomo Meyerbeer1876
Julien de MédicisPierre de MédicisJózef Michal Poniatowski1861
JustinLe chien du jardinierAlbert Grisar1855
Le Comte de NeversLes HuguenotsGiacomo Meyerbeer1863
Le duc de GreenwichJenny BellDaniel Auber1855
Le Marquis d'HérignyManon LescautDaniel Auber1856
LotarioMignonAmbroise Thomas1870
LysandreJoconde ou Les coureurs d'aventuresNicolas Isouard1857
MalipieriHaydéeDaniel Auber1853
MaxLe chaletAdolphe Adam1853
MéphistophélèsFaustCharles Gounod1863
MichelLe caïdAdolphe Adam1852
NéluskoL'AfricaineGiacomo Meyerbeer1865
PaddockLa coupe du roi de ThuléEugène Diaz1873
PedroLa mule de PedroVictor Massé1863
Peters Michaeloff L'étoile du nordGiacomo Meyerbeer1854
PharaonMoïse et PharaonGioachino Rossini1863
PietroLa stella del nord Giacomo Meyerbeer1864
PietroLa muette de PorticiDaniel Auber1863
PietroMasaniello Daniel Auber1853
Pietro ManelliLa TonelliAmbroise Thomas1853
PolusLa fiancée de CorintheJules Duprato1867
PygmalionGalathéeVictor Massé1852
RiccardoI puritaniVincenzo Bellini1863
RodolfoLa sonnambulaVincenzo Bellini1864
Rodrigue, Marquis of PosaDon CarlosGiuseppe Verdi1867
St. BrisGli Ugonotti Giacomo Meyerbeer1860
TorridaMarco SpadaDaniel Auber1854
ValbreuseLe sylpheLouis Clapisson1856