Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin

Nadar : Blanche Deschamps-Jehin (1910)

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Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin as Dalila (1892)

Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin (born September 18, 1857 in Lyon ; died June 24, 1923 in Paris ) was a French opera singer with a mezzo-soprano voice.

Life

Blanche Deschamps studied at the Conservatories of Lyon and Paris and was active on the opera stage from 1879 to 1905. She had an expressive, voluminous voice with a large range. She was married to the conductor Léon Jehin (1853–1928) since 1889

Among its world premieres was the title role in the opera Hérodiade by Jules Massenet .

In 1874 she sang at the Alhambra Theater in Brussels in the operetta Giroflé-Girofla by Charles Lecocq . Her debut as an opera singer took place in 1879 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels with the title character in Mignon by Ambroise Thomas . On December 19, 1881, she sang in Brussels in the world premiere of Massenet's Hérodiade . There she also sang the role of Uta in the world premiere of Ernest Reyer's opera Sigurd on January 7, 1884 .

From 1885 she sang at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, where she was also involved in several premieres: on April 25, 1885 in Une nuit de Cléopâtre by Victor Massé , on May 7, 1888 in Le roi d'Ys by Édouard Lalo and on June 10, 1891 in Le Rêve by Alfred Bruneau . In 1891 she took part in a Meyerbeer concert for the composer's 100th birthday. In 1891 she sang Carmen at the Covent Garden Opera in London . In Paris in 1892 she appeared in Herman Bembergs Elaine and as Fides in the Prophet .

From 1892 to 1902 she has a permanent engagement as prima donna at the Paris Grand Opéra and began with the Dalila . In 1893 she appeared there as Fricka in the Paris premiere of Die Walküre , on February 19, 1897 in the world premiere of the opera Messidor von Bruneau. On February 2, 1900, she created the role of mother in the premiere of Gustave Charpentier's Louise at the Opéra-Comique .

From 1889 she appeared regularly at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo , where her husband Léon Jehin was a conductor. There she sang the posthumous premiere of Hulda by César Franck on March 4, 1894, and of La Jacquerie by Lalo and Arthur Coquard on March 9, 1895 . On 24 May 1899, she sang at the Opéra-Comique Paris in the premiere of the opera Cendrillon by Massenet, the role of Mme de Haltière, on 14 February 1903 in Le cup of Eugène d'Harcourt , on 14 February 1905 as Baronne in the world premiere of Massenet's opera Chérubin . She had other roles in Monte Carlo as Queen in Thomas' Hamlet , as Marta and Pantalis in Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito , as Pallas in Hélène by Camille Saint-Saëns , as Erda in Rheingold as in Siegfried and as the mother's voice in Hoffmann's stories . Her career ended in 1913.

literature

• Deschamps-Jéhin, Blanche . In: Large song dictionary . 2000, pp. 5803-5805

Web links

• Literature by and about Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin , at artlyrique
• Information on Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .