Georgette Bréjean-Silver (née Georgette-Amélie Sisout; 22 September 1870 – August 1951) was a French opera singer (

coloratura soprano A coloratura soprano () is a type of operatic soprano voice that specializes in music that is distinguished by agile run (music), runs, leaps and Trill (music), trills. The term ''coloratura'' refers to the elaborate ornamentation of a melody, whi ...

Life

Born in Paris, Bréjean-Silver studied at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or 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 Jean Ja ...

. In 1890 she made her debut at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, whose director Gravière married her. She had her first great success in the title role of the opera ''

Manon ''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was f ...

'' by Jules Massenet at the

Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique () is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular Théâtre de la foire, theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief riva ...

in 1894. She embodied the role so convincingly that Massenet composed an additional

gavotte The gavotte (also gavot, gavote, or gavotta) is a French dance, taking its name from a folk dance of the Gavot, the people of the Gap, Hautes-Alpes, Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné in the southeast of France, where the dance originated, accordin ...

for her for the Brussels premiere of the work. At the premiere of Massenet's '' Cendrillon'' in 1899, Bréjean-Silver sang the role of the fairy. Further important roles were Rosina in Gioacchino Rossini's ''

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( ) is an ''opera buffa'' (comic opera) in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy ' ...

'', Philine in Ambroise Thomas' ''

Mignon ''Mignon'' () is an 1866 ''opéra comique'' (or opera in its second version) in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's 1795-96 novel '' Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre''. ...

,'' Euridice in Glucks's ''

Orfeo ed Euridice (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the '' azione teatrale'', meaning an ...

,'' Leila in Georges Bizet's ''

Les pêcheurs de perles ' (, ''The Pearl Fishers'') is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was premiered on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performan ...

'' and Rosenn in Édouard Lalo's '' Le roi d’Ys''. From 1900 Bréjean-Silver was married to the composer

Charles Silver Charles Silver (16 April 1868 – 10 October 1949) was a French composer. Life Born in Paris, Silver studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Théodore Dubois and Jules Massenet and won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in 1891 with the lyrica ...

. Some of her recordings from the years 1905 and 1906 have been preserved by Odeon and

Fonotipia Records Fonotipia Records, or Dischi Fonotipia, was an Italian gramophone record label established in 1904 with a charter to record the art of leading opera singers and some other celebrity musicians, chiefly violinists. Fonotipia continued to operate int ...

. Bréjean-Silver died in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...

in August 1951 aged 80.

External links

Georgette Bréjean-Silver
on Operisimo

on Forgotten opera singers
Georgette Bréjean-Silver, Manon Fabliau, Fonotipia 39225, Paris 1905
(YouTube) {{DEFAULTSORT:BrejeanSilver, Georgette 1870 births 1951 deaths Singers from Paris Conservatoire de Paris alumni 19th-century French women opera singers 20th-century French women opera singers