Gustave-Hippolyte Roger

Gustave-Hippolyte Roger depicted on a lithograph by Marie-Alexandre Alophe (1848)

Gustave-Hippolyte Roger (born December 17, 1815 in Paris ; † September 12, 1879 there ) was a French opera singer with a tenor voice .

Life

Gustave-Hippolyte Roger, son of a notary, was orphaned at a very early age and subsequently raised by his paternal uncle. According to his uncle's will, he should learn his father's trade and therefore first worked in a notary's office. However, he was more interested in the theater and entered the Paris Conservatory in 1836 , where he took singing lessons from the opera singer Jean-Blaise Martin . He made his debut at the Opéra-Comique in 1838 as George in L'éclair by Jacques Fromental Halévy . He stayed at the Opéra-Comique for the next ten years and was preferably an interpreter of Aubers and Halévys. For example, on February 4, 1842, he embodied the Chevalier de Vilhardouin in the world premiere of Auber's opera Le Duc d'Olonne and on February 3, 1846, Olivier d'Entragues in the world premiere of Halévy's Les Mousquetaires de la Reine . He was also on 6 December 1846, the first Faust in La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz .

In 1848 Roger toured England with the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind and from 1849 worked at the Grand Opéra in Paris. Here he first appeared on July 24, 1849 as Johann von Leiden in Meyerbeer's opera Le prophète , while the French mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot-García sang the role of Fidès as his partner . He also created the leading roles in L'Enfant prodigue by Auber (1850) and Le Juif errant by Halévy (April 23, 1852) and shone in Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer, La Reine de Chypre by Halévy, Lucia di Lammermoor and La Favorite by Donizetti et al. He also sang the part of Helios in the opera Herculaneum by Félicien David when it was premiered on March 4, 1859 in Paris. His most accomplished achievement, however, was the role of Georges Brown in La dame blanche by François-Adrien Boieldieu , in which playing and singing formed an unsurpassable whole.

In the period from 1850 to 1860, Roger repeatedly visited Germany and found a very friendly reception here, as he also had a complete command of the German language. So he stepped u. a 1851 at the court operas of Berlin and Dresden as well as 1851–52, 1854 and 1857 at the opera house of Hamburg , before he worked again in 1859 at the Berlin court opera. He also caused a stir in Brussels and Vienna . Even after losing his right arm as a result of a hunting accident, he was able to achieve brilliant triumphs on the stage, performing with a prosthetic arm. Among other things, he sang the part of Horace at the premiere of Gounod's opera La Colombe , which took place on August 3, 1860 in Baden-Baden .

The loss of his voice compelled Roger in 1868 to renounce the singing career. He initially accepted an engagement as an actor at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin , where he appeared in a drama by George Sand in 1868 . However, since this attempt was unsuccessful, he took over the position of professor of singing at the Paris Conservatory that had become vacant after Révial's resignation that same year, which he held until his death in 1879.

Roger combined his artistic education with a remarkable scientific education; In his autobiographical notes Carnet d'un ténor (Paris 1880), which appeared after his death and which contain memories of his journey with Jenny Lind, he appears as a witty narrator and a skilled stylist. Of his other literary works, an excellent translation of Haydn's Seasons into French should be mentioned. Richard Wagner had commissioned Roger in 1859 to translate Tannhäuser's libretto for its premiere at the Paris Opera, but was not satisfied with the execution.

literature

• Gustave-Hippolyte Roger . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 13, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 882.

Web links

• Gustave-Hippolyte Roger at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon