Gabriel Bacquier

Gabriel Bacquier (born May 17, 1924) is a French operatic baritone. One of the leading baritones of the 20th century and particularly associated with the French and Italian repertories, he is considered a fine singing-actor equally at home in dramatic or comic roles. [Rosenthal, Harold and John Warrack. (1979, 2nd ed.). "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera". London, New York and Melbourne: Oxford University Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-19-311318-X.]

Life and career

Gabriel Bacquier was born in Béziers, France and as a child was fascinated by everything to do with singing - records, broadcasts and photos of singers [Segalini S. "People 130: Gabriel Bacquier". Opera magazine, June 1982.] . He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, graduating in 1950. He joined the opera company of José Beckmans from 1950 to 1952, and then became a member of the opera La Monnaie in Brussels from 1953 until 1956. There he sang both the French repertory, opera (Faust, Lakme, Manon, Werther) and operetta ("Angélique", "La belle Hélène", "Les Cloches de Corneville", "Miss Heylett", "Monsieur Beaucaire"); as well as Puccini ("La Boheme", "Madame Butterfly"), the "Barber of Seville" and the "Bartered Bride". ['Computerised Archival Retrieval in Multimedia Enhanced Networking' - The digital opera archives of La Monnaie. http://carmen.demunt.be/ accessed 11 September 2008.]

He made his debut at the Opéra-Comique in 1956, as Sharpless in "Madama Butterfly", and at the Palais Garnier in 1958, as Germont in "La traviata", followed by the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1960, as "Don Giovanni". That was the start of his international career. He was invited at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1962, as Count Almaviva in "Le nozze di Figaro". From 1963, Bacquier sang regularly at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House in London.

Bacquier made his American debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1962, as the High Priest in "Samson et Dalila", which was also his debut role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, on October 17, 1964, where he was one of the few French singers to sing there for 18 consecutive seasons. [ [http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm MetOpera database] ] He also sang atthe San Francisco Opera making his debut there, as Michele in "Il tabarro" in 1971.

Though closely associated with the French repertory , especially Golaud in "Pelléas et Mélisande" [Loppert M. "Golaud - Gabriel Bacquier". Opera 'In character' Vol 2, London, 2006.] , Bacquier resisted being typecast as a "French baritone" and added many Italian roles to his repertory, such as Riccardo in "Ballo in maschera", Melitone in "Forza del destino", Posa in "Don Carlos", Iago in "Otello", Scarpia in "Tosca", as well as comic roles such as Bartolo in "Il barbiere di Siviglia", "Don Pasquale", "Falstaff", Leporello in "Don Giovanni", Alfonso in "Cosi fan tutte", etc.

He also created the title roles of Jean-Pierre Rivière's "Pour un Don Quichotte" (La Scala, March 10, 1961) and Daniel-Lesur 's "Andréa del Sarto" (Opéra de Marseille, 1969), as well as singing in the world premiere of Maurice Thiriet 's "La véridique histoire du Docteur" at the Opéra-Comique. [ [http://www.cala-lyon.com/bacquier.html Biography of Gabriel Bacquier] at the Théâtre d'Opérette de Lyon]

Although less active in the field of mélodie, he made recordings of songs by Ravel, Déodat de Séverac, Poulenc and others. Two live recitals from 1961 and 1972 were issued on CD in 1987 on the Vogue label. He may be seen singing six Poulenc songs accompanied by Jacques Février in June 1964 on a DVD ['Francis Poulenc & Friends'. EMI Classics 'classic archive', 2005. DVB 31020009.] .

Bacquier was also active as a teacher, first at the vocal school of theParis Opera, and later at the Paris Conservatory. He is married to French soprano, Michèle Command, with whom he often gives masterclasses mostly in Europe. Bacquier left an impressive discography.

Bacquier appears in a cameo singing role in the wedding scene of the 1986 film Manon des Sources.

Awards and Distinctions

Bacquier has received numerous awards and distinctions in his native France, including Officier de L'Ordre national du Mérite, Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. [ [http://www.cala-lyon.com/bacquier.html Biography of Gabriel Bacquier] at the Théâtre d'Opérette de Lyon]

elected recordings

*Mozart: "Don Giovanni" (Gabriel Bacquier (Giovanni), Joan Sutherland (Anna), Pilar Lorengar (Elvira) , Werner Krenn (Ottavio), Donald Gramm (Leporello), Marilyn Horne (Zerlina) , Leonardo Monreale (Masetto), Clifford Grant (Commendatore), Ambrosian Opera Chorus, English Chamber Orchestra). Conductor: Richard Bonynge. Decca 448 973-2
*Offenbach: "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" (Placido Domingo, Joan Sutherland, Gabriel Bacquier (Lindorf, Coppélius, Dapertutto, Dr Miracle), Paul Plishka, Huguette Tourangeau, Hugues Cuénod, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande). Conductor: Richard Bonynge. Decca.

*Offenbach: "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" (Roberto Alagna, Natalie Dessay, Sumi Jo, Leontina Vaduva, Catherine Dubosc, José Van Dam, Michel Sénéchal, Ludovic Tezier, Gabriel Bacquier (Spalanzani, Schlemil, Crespel), Doris Lamprecht, Gilles Ragon, Jean-Marie Frémeau, Benoit Boutet, Gérard Théruel, Juanita Lascarro, Orchestre & Choeur de L'Opéra de Lyon). Conductor: Kent Nagano. Erato 0630143302
*Massenet: "Manon" (Beverly Sills, Gabriel Bacquier (Comte des Grieux), Gérard Souzay, Michel Trempont, Nico Castel, New Philharmonia Orchestra). Conductor: Julius Rudel. Deutsche Grammophon 247002
*Massenet: "Thaïs (opera)" (Anna Moffo, Gabriel Bacquier (Athanaël), Jose Carreras, Justino Diaz, Ambrosian Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra). Conductor: Julius Rudel. RCA Red Seal.

*Debussy: "Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)" (Gabriel Bacquier (Golaud), Michèle Command, Claude Dormoy, Monique Pouradier-Duteil, Roger Soyer, Jocelyne Taillon, Xavier Tamalet, Orchestre de Lyon). Conductor: Serge Baudo. Eurodisc.

*Bizet: "La jolie fille de Perth" (June Anderson, Alfredo Kraus, Gino Quilico, José Van Dam, Gabriel Bacquier (Glover), Margarita Zimmermann, Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique). Conductor: Georges Prêtre. EMI 7475598
*Bizet: "Les pêcheurs de perles" - Jeanine Micheau (Leila), Alain Vanzo (Nadir), Gabriel Bacquier (Zurga), Lucien Lovano (Nourabad), Chœur de la RTF, Orchestre Radio-Lyrique, Conductor: Manuel Rosenthal. Paris, June 25, 1959. GALA GL 100.504

*Rossini: "Guillaume Tell" (Gabriel Bacquier (title role), Monserrat Caballé, Nicolai Gedda, Mady Mesplé, Jocelyne Taillon, Louis Hendrikx, Kolos Kovacs, Gwynne Howell, Charles Burles, Ricardo Cassinelli, Nicholas Christou, Ambrosian Opera Chorus, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra). Conductor: Lamberto Gardelli. EMI.

References

Further sources
* Alain Pâris, "Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle" (2 vols), Ed. Robert Laffont (Bouquins, Paris 1982, 4th Edn. 1995, 5th Edn 2004). ISBN 2-221-06660-X
* D. Hamilton (ed.),"The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to the World of Opera" (Simon and Schuster, New York 1987). ISBN 0-671-16732-X
* Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition), "Guide de l’opéra", Les indispensables de la musique (Fayard, 1995). ISBN 2-213-01563-6
* "Opera News", William V. Madison, July 2007.
* Sadie, Stanley and Christina Bashford. (1992). "The New Grove Dictionary of Opera". London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Vol. 1, p. 272. ISBN 0-935859-92-6.
* Sadie, Stanley and John Tyrrell,(2001). "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians". London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Vol. 2, p. 450-1. ISBN 0-333-60800-3.
* Warrack, John and Ewan West. (1996 3rd ed.). "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera". New York: Oxford University Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-19-280028-0.

External links

* [http://www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/CLSIBACQ.HTM Gabriel Bacquier Discography] (Brian Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings)