Lionel Daunais

Noël Ferdinand Lionel Daunais (born December 31, 1901 in Montreal ; † July 18, 1982 ibid) was a Canadian opera singer ( baritone ), opera director and composer.

Daunais studied singing with Celine Marier and later harmony and composition with Oscar O'Brien . In 1922 he performed at a student concert at the Académie Querbes in Outremont, and in 1923 he won first prize at the Montreal Musical Festival of the Metropolitan Choral Society . On the operatic stage he made his debut at the Orpheum Theater in 1926 as Ourias in Gounod's opera Mireille . In the same year he won the Prix ​​d'Europe and continued his education Émile Marcellin at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

In 1929 he became first baritone at the Algiers Opera and sang in Carmen , Faust , Manon , La traviata and The Barber of Seville . As the successor to Charles Marchand , he took part in the Canadian Folk Song and Handicraft Festival in 1930 with the vocal quartet Bytown Troubadours . In the same year he appeared for the first time with the Société canadienne d'opérette , with which he worked regularly until 1935. In 1932 he founded the Trio lyrique with Anna Malenfant and Ludovic Huot as well as the arranger and piano accompanist Allan McIver , with which he recorded an LP of his own compositions in 1943.

Daunais and Caro Lamoureux in a Variétés lyriques production by the Tsarevich

With Charles Goulet , Daunais founded the Variétés lyriques in 1936 , in which he was involved as co-director, producer and singer. With Anna Malenfant, the Association chorale St-Louis-de-France and the Disciples de Massenet , he gave a concert with his own works in the Salle St-Sulpice in 1940 .

Daunais sang the role of Conochar at the premiere of Healey Willan's opera Deidre on the CBC in 1946. With his Chanson du maître cordonnier he won first prize at the Marly Polydor Competition in Montreal in 1948 . His song Aglaé became known in Europe in the interpretation of the Canadian Josette France (aka Jocelyne Deslongchamps ). She later made a career as an operetta singer under the name Aglaé.

In 1956 and 1957, Daunais directed two series of operettas for the CBC television. In 1961/62 he made 250 broadcasts with the Trio lyrique on the CBC radio, and in 1963 he directed a production of the opera La Mascotte by Edmond Audran , which was given more than thirty times at the Théâtre de Verdure . He did other directing work at Place des Arts with La Belle Hélène by Jacques Offenbach (1966), La Margoton du bataillon by Casimir Oberfeld (1966), Valses de Vienne by Johann Strauss (1967), Les Mousquetaires au couvent by Louis Varney (1969) and La Vie Parisienne von Offenbach (1969).

The CBC dedicated a thirteen-part broadcast series to Daunais' work - more than 100 songs, 18 choral movements and 30 children's songs, often based on their own texts, as well as 40 folk song arrangements. In 1972 he received the Canada Music Council Medal and became a member of the board of directors of the Opéra du Québec . In 1977 he received the Prix ​​de musique Calixa-Lavallée and in 1978 he was honored as an officer of the Order of Canada .

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• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Lionel Daunais
• Canadian Music Center - Lionel Daunais
• Les Productions Da-go - Lionel Daunais
• Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame - Lionel Daunais