Jean Noté

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Noté sings in the Meaux hospital in 1915 (press photo)

Jean-Baptiste Noté , better known as Jean Noté (born May 6, 1858 in Tournai , Belgium , † April 1, 1922 in Brussels ) was a Belgian opera , concert and chanson singer with the baritone voice .

Life

The singer came from a small background. He was born out of wedlock to the day laborer Christine Noté in the working-class district of Sainte-Marguerite, and after attending elementary school, he was already working at home in the knitting factory as a ten-year-old . He later found a job as a railroad shunter . He volunteered for six years in the military after the lottery procedure that was customary in Belgium at the time obliged him to do military service . At the regimental school he was able to improve his education a little. However, he seems to have suffered from the service; At least he fled to avoid punishment for a few months over the French border to Lille , where he made his way as a tram driver and worker at the gas works, but then returned to the troops.

Noté had already gained musical experience: first in a carnival society in Tournai and as a drum in the civic guard (Garde civique), later with small singing appearances in cafés to supplement the meager wages or salaries. His musical talent was discovered at a military event in Ghent . Patrons financed Noté's first two years of studies at the Conservatory in Ghent, after which he received a scholarship from the Belgian state and additional benefits from the city of Tournai. After completing his training, a series of engagements at various opera houses followed: 1885 in Lille , 1887 to 1889 in Antwerp , 1888 to 1891 in Lyon , 1892 to 1893 in Marseille .

In 1893 Noté moved to the Paris Opera . He stayed there for almost thirty years. Guest performances have taken him to the Hofoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden (1897). In 1908/1909 he was part of the ensemble of the Metropolitan Opera in New York . He also emerged as a concert singer, especially with church concerts in the Paris church of Ste Madeleine . He is also known as a chanson singer . Noté was considered a philanthropist and took part in numerous benefit concerts .

Share of 100 francs from the Association Phonique des Grands Artistes on November 3, 1906

Noté was one of the most productive singers in the sound recording industry that was developing during his lifetime. He made numerous recordings of various kinds, from opera recordings to popular chansons, for a number of companies. There are Edison cylinders and shellac records from Notés Gesang by G & T, Odéon, Zonophone, Anker, Chantal de Luxe Belge, Béka-Ideal, APGA, Lyrophone and Pathé . The Pathé catalog from 1914 alone lists no fewer than 50 records with the artist Noté.

In this context, Noté also made a name for himself as an advocate for the rights of performers . In May 1906 he was one of the founding members of the Association Phonique des Grands Artistes (APGA), a record company founded by singers with the aim of giving the performers a portion of the proceeds from sales of sound carriers. Until then, only authors and music publishers had received royalties . The APGA only existed until 1910.

Jean Noté sings the Marseillaise on George Mendel's 1907 recording

Noté was also a pioneer in other new media of his time. With Noté in 1907 , Georges Mendel recorded a forerunner of the sound film , a three-minute version of the Marseillaise, using a mechanical coupling of phonograph and cinetograph . Noté appears in front of a cannon, salutes and sings the French national anthem. On December 29, 1921, Noté took part in a radio concert in honor of the Belgian royal couple. It took place in the basement of the Eiffel Tower ; It could be received in the Royal Palace in Laken and in the Aero Club de Bruxelles, which was considered quite astonishing at the time, since the first public radio program had also been broadcast from the Eiffel Tower just a few days earlier. Noté sang an aria from Roi de Lahore and the French and Belgian national anthems ( Marseillaise and Brabançonne ).

Noté was married twice, first to Heurine Génat, then, after her death in 1915, to Louise Thérèse Laurent. In 1922 he died unexpectedly of the consequences of a stone operation . He is buried on the Cimetière du Sud in Tournai.

Appearance and way of life

Noté is described as a very tall, strong man who was a bon vivant . According to a newspaper article, he “could take a good boot, ate for four and smoked like a Turk”.

Work and reception

Opera

Noté was best known for his interpretation of Richard Wagner's opera roles, such as Friedrich von Telramund in Lohengrin , Sixtus Beckmesser in the Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Wolfram in Tannhäuser ; at the Paris Opera he also sang Alberich in the French language Siegfried in 1901 and Donner in Rheingold in 1909 .

Another focus was the classical works from Giuseppe Verdi's middle creative period, especially the title role of Rigoletto and Conte Luna in Il trovatore . Rigoletto made his debut at the Paris Opera in 1893, and Noté sang Count Luna in Paris in 1904 in a new production of Trovatore in French ( Le trouvère ). In 1912, the Pathé record company brought out the first complete sound recordings of the two operas, in both cases with Noté.

Finally, Noté also worked in the field of French opera. His interpretations of the title role in Guillaume Tell ( Gioacchino Rossini ), Scindia in Jules Massenet's Le Roi du Lahore , Hamlet in the opera of the same name by Ambroise Thomas and above all Nélusco in Giacomo Meyerbeer's L'Africaine are considered outstanding . In New York, his debut was the part of Valentin in Charles Gounod's Faust ; he was on stage with Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar . Later he sang Escamillo in Carmen there , also with Caruso and Farrar in the cast and with Arturo Toscanini on the conductor's podium.

In addition, Noté was involved in several world premieres , such as Messidor by Alfred Bruneau with libretto by Émile Zola (in Paris) in 1897 , in 1903 in Le Cup by Eugène d'Harcourt and in 1912 in Roma by Massenet (both in Monte Carlo ). In 1921 he sang the world premiere of Gabriel Dupont's opera Antar den Amarat.

In the great lexicon of singers , Noté is attested "one of the most beautiful baritone voices" "that French opera possessed within its generation of artists". JB Steane is somewhat more skeptical in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera ; He thinks that Noté's singing looks a bit coarse and uninteresting stylistically on his sound recordings, but that it stands out due to its robust, powerful tone. The powerful voice is also highlighted in contemporary reviews. Gregoir quotes a criticism of his performance as Ashton in Lucia di Lammermoor :

“Let the orchestra romp with the clenched brass, get all its percussion going, the trumpets rumble and the clarinets scream, the violins sing and the cellos sigh [...]: The voice of Mr. Noté dominates all these storms, lasts the beat with sovereignty, fills out the fermatas with ease, follows the musical phrase without ever giving in, and finally earns the applause of the whole hall. "

Chanson, popular culture

Among the most popular chansons that Noté has recorded are patriotic songs, such as Le violon brisé (German for example: "The broken violin"), a chanson with a revenge theme, which in melancholy tones depicts the loss of Alsace-Lorraine in German Lamented the French War . Noté was also known for his interpretation of lyrical pieces such as the boatman's romance L'Angélus de la mer (“The Angelus on the Sea”). This chanson, written by Léon Durocher (text) and Gustave Goublier (music), is dedicated to Noté as the “barytonnerre” (a play on “baritone” and “thunder”) of the Paris Opera.

Noté was particularly popular in Belgium. His name was used as an advertising medium for numerous objects ("cafes, drinks, bottles"), even record players were referred to as notéphones .

Honors

On February 17, 1913, Noté was made an officer of the Legion of Honor , mainly because of his philanthropic merits. His hometown Tournai has named a street and a school after Jean Noté and erected a memorial in his honor.

literature

  • Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . 3, expanded edition. Bern / Munich, Saur, 1999. There: Volume 4, p. 2558.
  • Nicolas Slominsky: Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians . Seventh Edition. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984. There: p. 1664.
  • JB Steane: Jean Noté . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , Volume 3, p. 824.
  • Walter Ravez: Jean Noté. La Vie d'un Artiste et d'un Philanthrope . Lucq & Delcourt-Vasseur, Tournai 1923.
  • Étienne Boussemart: Jean Noté, une voix et un symbols. In: L'Avenir , April 22, 2008, online .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. See the documents of the Legion of Honor in Base Léonore , Cote LH / 2003/52: page 1 gives the date of birth, page 6 shows an extract from the birth register. The monograph by Ravez 1923 shows a photo of the tomb in Tournai with the year 1858 clearly visible. All three song lexicons (Kutsch / Riemens, Baker's Biographical Dictionary and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ) state 1859, but without evidence.
  2. The only available biography of Noté is entitled: Jean Noté. La vie d'un artist et d'un philanthrope. It comes from Walter Ravez and was published in Tournai in 1923.
  3. http://dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.net/textes_divers/apga/apga.htm
  4. See the entry in the IMDb: La Marseillaise (1907)
  5. Ravez 1923, pp. 28f.
  6. Boussemart 2008.
  7. Boussemart 2008, who quotes Odon Boucq here: "buvant sec, mangeant comme quatre, fumant comme un Turc".
  8. In the original: "L'orchestre a beau rugir de tous ses cuivres, mettre en branle toute sa batterie, faire gronder ses trombones et crier ses clarinettes, chanter ses violines et soupirer ses violoncelles [...]: la voix de M. Noté domine toutes ces tempêtes, commande la mesure avec autorité, s'étale avec aisance sur les points d'orgue, suit la phrase musicale sans jamais fléchir, et, finalement, enlève les applaudissements de la salle entière. "From: Edouard Georges Jacques Gregoir: Les Artistes-musiciens belges au XVIIIme et au XIXme siècle. Supplément et complément 2 (7). Bruxelles, Schott, 1890. Quoted from: Biografisch Archief van de Benelux (BAB), part 1, file number 0499, p. 52, access via World Biographical Information System Online .
  9. The text of Le violon brisé can be found on the page www.dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.net: [1] , also a sound recording with Jean Noté.
  10. See Pierre Chapelle in Le Cornet , April 1922. Online , pp. 7–8.
  11. Dedication in Léon Durocher: Chansons de là-haut et de là-bas , Flammarion, Paris 1900, p. 62.
  12. See Boussemart 2008.
  13. See for example [2] and [3] .
  14. See Base Léonore , Cote LH / 2003/52.
  15. A photo can be found at http://www.dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.net/fiches_bio/note_jean/note_jean.htm