Albert Vaguet (15 June 1865 – 22 February 1943) was a French

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

singer (tenor).

Youth

Vaguet was born in

Elbeuf Elbeuf () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A light industrial town situated by the banks of the Seine some south of Rouen at the junction of the D7, D321 and the D313 roads. The c ...

( Seine-Maritime). Very young, he started singing in concerts of his hometown (church and municipal band). He was ten years old when his mother died and to help his father feed his brothers and sisters he worked as a day labourer on the quays of the Seine. He was noticed in 1885 by a journalist from the ''Journal d'Elbeuf''. He entered the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

in 1886. The following year, while serving in the 119th infantry regiment of Évreux, he performed in an exhibition at

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

where he was nicknamed "the Military Tenor" by the local press.

The Conservatoire de musique

In 1889 he obtained the first singing and

opéra comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular '' opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent (and to a l ...

runner-up, and the second opera runner-up in 1889. The following year, he left the Conservatory after winning second prizes in singing, opera and opéra comique. Despite these second prizes - and against the advice of the critic who reproached him not being able to "get over an air without giving the flock a nest of ducks" - Pierre Gailhart, the director of the Opéra Garnier decided to trust him and engaged him as

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

. He then joined the tenors Duc, Escalaïs, Vergnet, Affre, Gérôme, Téqui, Piroia, Voulet, Devriès and Idrac.

Opéra Garnier

Albert Vaguet performed for the first time on 29 October 1890 at the

Palais Garnier The Palais Garnier (, Garnier Palace), also known as Opéra Garnier (, Garnier Opera), is a 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from ...

in the role of '' Faust'' by Charles Gounod, a part he held more than 300 times. He played many roles among the works '' Das Rheingold'', ''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...

'' by Wagner, ''

Gwendoline Gwendoline is a feminine given name, a variant of Gwendolen. Notable people called Gwendoline *Gwendoline Maud Syrie Barnardo (1879–1955), a British interior decorator *Gwendoline Butler (born 1922), an English writer of mystery fiction *Gwendo ...

'' by Emmanuel Chabrier, '' Thaïs'' by Jules Massenet, ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. Th ...

'' by Verdi etc. It was on the occasion of ''Déidamie''''Déidamie''
on Data.bnf.fr in 1893 that he met Albertine Marie Chrétien, better known by her stage name '' Alba Chrétien'', born in Paris on 8 March 1872. They married on 30 June 1894 in Paris and had two daughters. They sang at the

Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire The Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire was a symphony orchestra established in Paris in 1828. It gave its first concert on 9 March 1828 with music by Beethoven, Rossini, Meifreid, Rode and Cherubini. Administered by the philha ...

and the Opera until 1903 for Albert and 1904 for Alba.

After the Opéra

They settled in Nay, near Pau, in 1906. Albert, however, continued to record

cylinders A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infini ...

then 78 rpm for

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...

, and Alba to give singing lessons. Albert and his wife died in Pau on 22 February 1943 and 28 February 1963 respectively.

Epilogue

Albert Vaguet has recorded many cylinders and records for Pathé. It is not very difficult to obtain them in specialized stores. On the other hand, it is much more complicated to listen to them without damaging the support. Unfortunately, there is no compilation of his performances recorded on a modern medium, with Pathé still asserting his rights ("they will expire around 2020"). The master cylinders and discs (the originals held by Pathé) have suffered from inadequate storage conditions and are in fact irreparably altered.

Sources

* ''L'Almanach des spectacles'' * ''L'Année musicale'' * ''La Nouvelle Revue'' * ''Revue internationale de musique française'', No 26 * and family documents, or delivered by J. -P. Meslin

Bibliography

*Jean-Pierre Meslin, "Albert Vaguet, un Elbeuvien sur la scène de l'Opéra de Paris", in ''Revue généalogique normande'' , No 92, 2004

References

External links

Albert Vaguet cylinder recordings
from the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

Library.
Albert Vaguet
by Samuel Marc
Le ténor Albert Vaguet
on villedenay.fr
Albert Vaguet's discography
on Discogs
Albert Vaguet
on Phonofolies et Phonographies

on Forgotten Opera Singers
Albert Vaguet, "Marie Antoinette" 1906
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaguet, Albert 1865 births 1943 deaths People from Elbeuf Musicians from Normandy Conservatoire de Paris alumni French operatic tenors