Rodolphe Plamondon

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Joseph Marcel Rodolphe Plamondon (born January 18, 1876 in Toronto ; † January 28, 1940 there ) was a Canadian singer (tenor), cellist and music teacher.

Plamondon studied cello with Louis Charbonneau and solfège with Frédéric Pelletier and, on the advice of his brother-in-law Charles-Onésime Lamontagne, took singing lessons from Guillaume Couture . He performed occasionally as a vocal soloist at St James Cathedral and Gesù Church before moving to France in 1895. There he first continued his cello studies at the Rennes Conservatory and from 1896 in Paris with Ferdinand Ronchini . He also took singing lessons and became a student of the tenor Pierre-Émile Engel . During appearances in salons and churches he met Jules Massenet and Reynaldo Hahn , among others .

After appearances with Nellie Melba in London's Windsor Hall , he made his official debut at Silverstatg 1897 in Paris in the Dominican Church in Faubourg St-Honoré with the baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure and Charles-Marie Widor on the organ. In 1898 he performed at the Albert Hall in London with Nellie Melba, Clara Butt and Pol Plançon ; in the 1899 season he sang at the Vichy Opera House and in 1900 at the Cairo Opera.

On his return to Paris, he performed as a cellist at the Casino de Paris and became solo tenor at the Church of St-Roch . In 1903 he married the pianist Marie Dufriche , who often accompanied him to concerts. Plamondon became a successful concert and opera singer; he sang leading roles in Gounod's Faust , Boitos Mefistofele and Berlioz ' Les Troyens and made his debut at the Paris Opera in 1906 in the title role of Berlioz La Damnation de Faust .

Plamondon ended his operatic career before the outbreak of the First World War. He had long since built up a reputation as a concert and oratorio singer. In 1917 he traveled with Camille Saint-Saëns through southern France and sang the first performance of the song cycle La Cendre rouge with the composer at the piano. Like Vincent d'Indy , Saint-Saëns held him in high regard as a singer and dedicated his last work to him, the song À Saint-Blaise .

During a visit to Canada in 1920 he gave a concert with pianist Jean Dansereau at the Monument national in Montreal with songs by Beethoven , Berlioz , Debussy , Fauré , Franck and Méhul . 1923–1924 he undertook concert tours through Europe and Canada with the bass player Ulysse Paquin . In 1924 he sang the world premiere of Rodolphe Mathieu's Harmonie du soir under the baton of Paul Paray at the Lamoureux Concerts in Paris .

In 1926 he gave a subscription concert at the Monument national with Marie-Thérèse Paquin , Jean-Baptiste Dubois and the Association Chorale Brassard for a price of $ 2,000. During this time he sang about a dozen recordings on the Starr label . At the Canadian Pacific Railway Festival in 1928 he appeared in the premiere of Healey Willan's L'ordre du bon temps . In 1930 he went on a concert tour of Canada with his son, cellist Lucien Plamondon .

In the 1930s, Plamondon opened his own music school in Montreal, and he also taught from 1935–36 and 1939–40 at the École supérieure de musique d'Outremont . His students included the singers Louise André , Germaine Bruyère , Reine Décarie , Richard Manning and Georges Toupin and the music producer Claude Garneau . His brother Arthur Plamondon was also a singer, his nephew Ernest-Gill Plamondon was a violinist and conductor, the poet and librettist Luc Plamondon is also a member of Rodolphe Plamondon's relatives. In 1911 a street in Montreal was named after him.

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personal data
SURNAME Plamondon, Rodolphe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Plamondon, Joseph Marcel Rodolphe (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian singer (tenor), cellist and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1940
Place of death Toronto