Georges Thill

Georges Thill (born December 14, 1897 in Paris , † October 17, 1984 in Draguignan ) was a French opera singer ( tenor ).

Life

Thill worked as a broker on the stock exchange until 1916. He was drafted into military service in 1916. After his return he began studying at the Conservatoire de Paris with Ernest Dupré and the famous bass player André Gresse . In 1919 he made his debut at the Opéra-Comique as José in Georges Bizet's opera Carmen . In 1920 he went to Naples to continue his vocal training with Fernando de Lucia .

In 1924 Thill made his debut at the Paris Opera as Nicias in Jules Massenet's Thaïs . He had great success here as Duke in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto and in 1928 as Kalaf in Giacomo Puccini's Turandot . In this role he appeared at the 1928 Festival in the Arena of Verona and made his debut in 1929 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. He made his debut at Covent Garden Opera London in 1928 in the title role of Camille Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila , and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1931 in the title role of Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette .

At the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Thill sang in Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov's Sadko in 1930 . He has also made guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera , the Royal Stockholm Opera and the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. In 1936 he went on a concert tour of Russia and, after the Second World War, a tour of Australia. In 1953 he gave his farewell performance at the Opéra-Comique as Canio in Ruggiero Leoncavallo's Der Bajazzo .

In addition to the classical opera repertoire, Thill also sang numerous world premieres of contemporary operas, such as Brocéliande by André Bloch (1925), La tour de feu by Sylvio Lazzari (1928), Satan by Raoul Gunsbourg (1930), Vercingétorix by Joseph Canteloube (1933), Naïla von Philippe Gaubert (1927) and Roland et le mauvais garçon by Henri Rabaud (1934).

Since the 1920s, Thill has recorded more than 140 tracks on records. He also worked in music films, for example with Grace Moore and André Pernet on the film adaptation of Gustave Charpentier's Louise . After saying goodbye to the opera, he performed on concert tours until 1956, after which he retired into private life.

literature

• Roland Mancini: Georges Thill , Paris 1966
• A. Segond: Georges Thill , Lyon 1980

Web links

• Georges Thill at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon