Victor Capoul

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Victor Capoul, 1901

Joseph-Amédée-Victor Capoul ( February 27, 1839 in Toulouse - February 18, 1924 in Pujaudran ) was a French lyric tenor and opera singer , also a librettist , singing teacher and opera director .

biography

Capoul began his studies in his hometown of Toulouse and was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris in 1859 . His teachers were the tenor Louis-Benoît-Alphonse Révial (1810–1871) for singing and the tenor and chief director Toussaint Eugène Ernest Mocker (1811 to after 1885) for scenic design. He was admitted to the Concours in 1860 and won second prize in the singing and opera comique categories . In the following year he was awarded the premier prix d'opéra-comique and completed his studies.

Success in Paris

On August 26, 1861, the singer made his debut at the Opéra-Comique in Paris as Daniel in Le Châlet by Adolphe Adam and was immediately one of the pillars of the ensemble. Until 1870 he sang a variety of roles from the French repertoire at the Opéra-Comique, occasionally also the Italian, including the Nourreddin in Lalla Roukh by Félicien-César David , the Bénédict in L'Ambassadrice by Auber (with Marie Cabel as a partner) as well the title role in Auber's Fra Diavolo . He has given a number of world premieres, for example by the composers Auber , Lefébure-Wély , Massé and Poise , and has also been used in a number of repertoire pieces, including La fille du régiment , La part du diable , La dame blanche , Le Pré aux clercs and L'étoile du nord . On July 1, 1864 - during a temporary closure of the Salle Favart - the tenor shone as Count Almaviva in Rossini's The Barber of Seville at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin . On January 4, 1866, he sang the cantata Renaud dans les jardins d'Armide in the Conservatoire , written by Camille du Locle and composed by Charles Lenepveu .

His star roles included the eponymous hero in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable and Roméo in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette , which he was originally scheduled to premiere. A dispute developed between Opéra-Comique and the Théâtre-Lyrique , which sought to engage the singer - not only because of his excellent voice, but also because of his good looks and his stage presence. The Opéra-Comique did not release him and the role went to Pierre-Jules Michot, who was seven years his senior . In the same year, however, Capoul celebrated triumphs in the title role of Méhuls Joseph in his parent company. In 1869 Offenbach wrote him the role of Valentin / Vert-Vert in his comic opera Vert-Vert and the premiere on March 10, 1869 was a major success. Capoul impressed the Paris audience as a classical tenor-léger , a subject that in French includes both the roles of tenore di grazia and lyric tenor . Capoul was praised for his high notes sung with ease and swing, for grace, charm and attractive stage personality. The ladies in particular are said to have raved about him.

Offenbach also composed the title role of Fantasio , his next comic opera, for Victor Capoul, but the singer fled to London because of the Franco-Prussian War and was no longer available. Fantasio is both a romantic hero and a fool, who uses intelligence and gripping energy to prevent a war and conquer a woman at the same time. Offenbach then rewrote the title role from tenor to mezzo-soprano and transferred it to Célestine Galli-Marié , who had already participated in his opera Robinson Crusoé five years earlier .

Capoul did not appear again until 1873 in Paris.

International career

In 1871 the singer made his debut in London and New York , in both cities with roles in the French repertoire. At London's Drury Lane Theater he gave the title role in Gounod's Faust and Wilhelm Meister in Mignon by Ambroise Thomas . In the New York Academy of Music , at that time the most important opera house in the city, he also sang Wilhelm Meister in Mignon , also with great success. The premiere took place on November 22, 1871, the title role sang by the Swedish soprano Christine Nilsson , who was already a star at the time and helped the opera to break through in London and New York.

As a result, the singer went on a three-year tour that took him to Moscow and St. Petersburg , among others , and to the Komische Oper in Vienna in 1874 . Until 1875 he sang at Drury Lane in London, in 1876 he made his debut as part of the Italian Stagione at the k. u. k. Court Opera in Vienna and sang at the Paris Théâtre-Lyrique in the world premiere of the opera Paul et Virginie by Victor Massé . In 1877 he made his debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, where he sang the title roles in Faust and Fra Diavolo as well as Lyonel, Ernesto, Elvino and Count Almaviva over the next two seasons .

In 1878 and 1881 he participated again in world premieres in Paris: he sang Romeo in Les amants de Vérone by Paul d'Ivry at the Théâtre Ventadour and Naghib in the exotic opera Le Saïs by the writer and composer Marguerite Olagnier at the Théâtre de la Renaissance, then an operetta house. The composer used to be an opera singer herself and lived in Egypt, so she knew the Arab world she described from her own experience. In both cases Capoul had organized and probably directed the production.

In 1883 the newly founded Metropolitan Opera opened its doors in New York and immediately hired the best singers in the opera world. Capoul was also invited, made his debut in the title role of Gounod's Faust and sang a total of eight roles at the Met in this and two other seasons in the 1890s, including Wilhelm Meister and Conte d'Almaviva, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor , Alfredo in La traviata and the Enzo in La Gioconda . New York critics praised his "natural lightness and grace" and characterized him as "the most ardent and fascinating lover of America's operatic stage".

After his return from America, the singer appeared at the Opéra de Monte Carlo , as Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon and as the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto . On June 8, 1887, he took part in the charity concert at the Trocadéro for the benefit of the victims of the fire in the Opéra-Comique. Another world premiere followed in 1888, this time not only as a producer, director and leading actor, but also as a librettist (together with Armand Silvestre ): Jocelyn by Benjamin Godard . The premiere took place on February 25 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels , the Paris premiere on October 13 at the Théâtre du Chàteau-d'Eau . A trip to the spoken theater in 1889 - La Pure Fiammette at the Théâtre Libre - was not very successful, and an application for the management of the Opéra-Comique was unsuccessful.

In 1891 Victor Capoul returned to New York, where he spent the next few years. On November 23, 1891, he sang Cassio in Verdi's Otello at a Met premiere in Chicago . The title role was played by Jean de Reszke , Desdemona Emma Albani . This production could also be seen and heard from January 1892 at the Met's headquarters in New York. For the Met performances of Roméo et Juliette in Chicago, New York, Albany and Philadelphia, he had to forego his star role, the Roméo, in favor of his compatriot Jean de Reszke, who was eleven years his junior; he sang the Tybalt.

Teacher, director, librettist

Le Clown , libretto: Capoul, music: de Camondo

From 1892 to 1897 he worked at the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York, where he taught singing, but performed again at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1895/96 season . He then went back to Paris and in 1899 was hired by Pierre Gailhard , long-time director of the Grand Opéra , to his house. Capoul's function at the Palais Garnier was officially director des études dramatiques , a new function that was apparently intended to improve the performance of the ensemble. What is certain is that he staged a number of operas there, including the world premiere of Le Roi de Paris , a drame lyrique by Henry Bouchut , set to music by Georges Hüe on April 26, 1901 . He stayed at the Grand Opéra until 1905.

He also worked as a singing teacher in Paris. His well-known students included Bessie Abott , Mme. Charles Cahier and Geraldine Farrar . Capoul also composed some songs and must have also been active as a lieder singer. This is supported by the fact that the song La coccinelle, based on a text by Victor Hugo and set to music by Camille Saint-Saëns , was dedicated to him.

In 1905 he was invited to one of the earliest recordings in history by the Fonotipia label . He sang the lullaby from the opera Jocelyn , which he had participated in the premiere at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels . He is said to have been deaf by this time, which could also explain his resignation as director of the Grand Opéra.

When the banker, art collector and patron Isaac de Camondo wanted to compose an opera, Victor Capoul wrote the libretto. The work is titled Le Clown and was premiered in 1906 at the Nouveau Théâtre in Paris with the American soprano Geraldine Farrar , one of his students. Further performances of the opera took place in 1908 and 1909 at the Opéra-Comique and also in 1909 in Marseille . Performances followed in 1910 in Vichy , 1911 in Antwerp and 1912 in Cologne.

The Bibliothèque nationale de France also refers to an appearance at the Théâtre des Capucines in 1909, where he took over the role of Oporto in the operetta Afgar ou Les loisirs andalous with music by Charles Cuvillier .

The artist is said to have lost his entire fortune through speculation - with the exception of a small farm in southwest France, the Château de Lartus, to which he retired. There he is said to have burned all the memorabilia (records, photographs, programs, etc.).

roll

Role picture with Madame Rey, presumably from Roméo et Juliette , Atelier Nadar , Paris undated

repertoire

Auber :

  • Title role in Fra Diavolo
  • Bénédict in L'Ambassadrice
  • Marcel in Le rêve de l'amour

Bellini :

Boieldieu :

Donizetti :

Flotow :

Gounod :

 

Halévy :

  • George in L'Éclair

Massenet :

  • Marquis de Kerdrel in La grand'tante
  • Des Grieux in Manon

Meyerbeer :

Ponchielli :

Rossini :

Verdi :

Thomas :

World premieres

Trivia

In La premiere jour de bonheur
In Paul et Virginie , with a Capoul hairstyle

Victor Capoul had a characteristic hairstyle, ascribed to him, which became so well known that the phrase still exists in Wallonia today : se faire des capouls or avoir des capouls . Due to his prominence and, in some cases, his hairstyle, the singer was often the object of draftsmen and caricaturists.

Commemoration

At least four public transport routes in France are named after the artist:

  • the rue Victor-Capoul in his native Toulouse ,
  • the Avenue Victor Capoul in Pujaudran, the village in which he died,
  • the Place Victor Capoul in L'Isle-Jourdain as well
  • the Allée Victor Capoul in Colomiers .

Sources: For a long time, the Novotel in Toulouse bore the singer's name. The local brasserie is still named after him today.

In 2015, a crowdfunding campaign was started to finance the renovation of the family crypt in Pujaudran , in which the singer is buried with his parents.

literature

Web links

Commons : Victor Capoul  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ J. Martin: Nos artists; portraits et biographies. Paul Ollendorff, Paris, 1895. View p. 67 in the Internet Archive .
  2. ↑ a b c A. Soubies, C. Malherbe: Histoire de l'opéra comique - La seconde salle Favart 1840–1887. Flammarion, Paris, 1893.
  3. ^ Huebner S. The Operas of Charles Gounod. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1992.
  4. ↑ a b c Karen Henson: Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteenth Century , Cambridge University Press 2015, pp. 157–158, online: [1] accessed on September 9, 2016.
  5. ↑ Dieter David Scholz : Long live Offenbach! , The Offenbach Festival at the Komische Oper Berlin : 10. – 17. February 2016, accessed September 11, 2016.
  6. ↑ E. Forbes, JB Steane: Victor Capoul. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.
  7. ^ Oxford Index , accessed September 9, 2016.
  8. ↑ a b Elizabeth Nash: Geraldine Farrar: Opera's Charismatic Innovator , 2d ed., McFarland 2012, pp. 8, 14 and 29, Online: [2] , accessed on September 9, 2016.
  9. ↑ MetOperaFamily (Archives): Capoul, Victor (tenor) , accessed on September 9, 2016.
  10. ↑ Le Roi de Paris. Drame lyrique en 3 actes de Henry Bouchut. Musique de Georges Hüe. Reliure inconnue, Paris 1901
  11. ↑ Bibliothèque nationale de France : Le roi de Paris , accessed on September 9, 2016.
  12. ^ A b Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singing dictionary . 4th edition, Walter de Gruyter 2004, ISBN 3-598-44088-X , p. 712.
  13. ↑ Bibliothèque nationale de France : La coccinelle, mélodie , accessed on September 9, 2016.
  14. ↑ a b c d Marie-Noël de Gary: The Camondo legacy: the passions of a Paris collector . Thames & Hudson, London 2008, ISBN 0-500-51410-0 . Page 311.
  15. ^ Marie-Noël de Gary: The Camondo legacy, page 312.
  16. ↑ Bibliothèque nationale de France : Afgar ou Les loisirs andalous , accessed on September 9, 2016.
  17. ↑ a b c Sylvie Roux: Qui veut participer à la restauration de la tombe du grand ténor Victor Capoul? , La Dépêche du Midi (Toulouse), December 8, 2015, accessed September 6, 2016.
  18. ↑ Falk.de - route planner, city maps and mobile navigation , keyword: Victor Capoul , accessed on September 6, 2016.
  19. ^ Novotel Toulouse: La Brasserie du Capoul , accessed September 6, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Capoul, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Capoul, Joseph-Amédée-Victor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French opera singer, librettist, singing teacher and director
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Toulouse
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1924
Place of death Pujaudran