Gilbert-Louis Duprez (6 December 180623 September 1896) was a French
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 ...
, singing teacher and minor composer who famously pioneered the delivery of the operatic
high C
C or Do is the first note and semitone of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63 Hz. The actual frequ ...
from the chest (''Ut de poitrine'', as Paris audiences called it). He also created the role of Edgardo in the popular
bel canto
Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing.
The phrase was not associat ...
-era opera ''
Lucia di Lammermoor
''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel ''The Bride of Lammermoor''.
...
'' in 1835.
Biography
Gilbert-Louis Duprez was born in Paris. He studied singing, music theory, and composition with
Alexandre-Étienne Choron
Alexandre-Étienne Choron (21 October 1771 – 29 June 1834) was a French musicologist. For a short time he directed the Paris Opera. He made a distinction between sacred and secular music and was one of the originators of French interest in mus ...
and made his operatic début at the
Odéon in 1825 as ''Count Almaviva'' in
Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
's ''
Il barbiere di Siviglia
''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was base ...
''. He worked in that theatre without much success until 1828, when he decided to try his luck in Italy. There, the operatic scene was more active and developed. As a result, Duprez was able to immerse himself in work, beginning principally with ''
tenore contraltino The tenore contraltino is a specialized form of the tenor voice found in Italian opera around the beginning of the 19th century, mainly in the Rossini repertoire, which rapidly evolved into the modern 'Romantic' tenor. It is sometimes referred to a ...
'' roles such as ''Idreno'' in ''
Semiramide
''Semiramide'' () is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.
The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy ''Semiramis'', which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Assyria. The opera was first performed at La Fenice ...
'' and ''Rodrigo'' in ''
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 ...
'', both by Rossini. He appeared, too, as ''Gualtiero'' in
Bellini's ''
Il pirata
''Il pirata'' (''The Pirate'') is an opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with an Italian libretto by Felice Romani which was based on a three-act ''mélodrame ''from 1826: ''Bertram, ou le Pirate'' (''Bertram, or The Pirate'') by Charles Nodie ...
''. The latter role proved to be his first undisputed stage success, probably because it was free of elaborate
coloratura
Coloratura is an elaborate melody with runs, trills, wide leaps, or similar virtuoso-like material,''Oxford American Dictionaries''.Apel (1969), p. 184. or a passage of such music. Operatic roles in which such music plays a prominent part, an ...
passages, which were not considered to be his strong suit as a vocalist.
In 1831, in
Lucca
Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957.
Lucca is known as one o ...
, Duprez took part in the premiere Italian performance of ''
Guglielmo Tell
''William Tell'' (french: Guillaume Tell, link=no; it, Guglielmo Tell, link=no) is a French-language opera in four acts by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and L. F. Bis, based on Friedrich S ...
'', singing for the first time (in an opera theatre) a high C sung not in the so-called
falsettone Falsettone is a term used in modern Italian musicology to describe a vocal technique used by male opera singers in the past, in which the fluty sounds typical of falsetto singing are amplified by using the same singing technique used in the modal v ...
register, as other tenors of that time were accustomed to do, but with a full voice, often described as coming "from the chest". His Italian career then proceeded on a highly successful course. It embraced, among other things, two premieres of operas by
Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
, namely, ''
Parisina
''Parisina'' is a 586-line poem written by Lord Byron. It was probably written between 1812 and 1815, and published on 13 February 1816.
It is based on a story related by Edward Gibbon in his '' Miscellaneous Works'' (1796) about Niccolò III d ...
'' (in the role of Ugo) at
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
in 1832, and, more significantly, ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' (in the role of Edgardo) at Naples'
San Carlo in 1835.
His Italian reputation strongly established, Duprez returned to Paris in 1837 and scored an immediate success at the
Opéra
This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names.
"Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...
with his exciting new style of vocal delivery as exemplified in ''William Tell.'' Consequently, he obtained equal billing with
Adolphe Nourrit
Adolphe Nourrit (3 March 1802 – 8 March 1839) was a French operatic tenor, librettist, and composer. One of the most esteemed opera singers of the 1820s and 1830s, he was particularly associated with the works of Gioachino Rossini and Giacomo ...
as "principal tenor" of the theatre. Nourrit responded by leaving for Italy in emulation of his competitor; but unlike Duprez, he failed to master the new singing style during studies with Donizetti and committed suicide.
Duprez maintained his leading position at the Opéra until 1849, singing the title role in the première of
Berlioz's ''
Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...
'' in 1838, and taking part in several further Donizetti premieres, including those of ''
La favorite
''La favorite'' (''The Favourite'', sometimes referred to by its Italian title: ''La favorita'') is a grand opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play ''Le comt ...
'' (as Fernand) and ''
Les Martyrs
''Les martyrs'' (''The Martyrs'') is a four-act grand opera by Gaetano Donizetti set to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe. The libretto was based on one written by Salvadore Cammarano for an original Italian version known as ''Poliuto'', which w ...
'' (as Poliuto), both in 1840, and
Dom Sébastien
''Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal'' (''Don Sebastian, King of Portugal'') is a French grand opera in five acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe, based on Paul Foucher's play ''Don Sébastien de Portugal'' which pre ...
(in the title role), in 1843. Ironically the role of Poliuto, which Donizetti had written expressly for Nourrit in order to help him to maintain his exalted position, was to become associated in the public's mind with Duprez.
After singing in London at the
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster.
Notable landmarks ...
theatre in the years 1843–1844, Duprez began to cut back on his stage performances, with a notable exception being the lead role in
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
's ''
Jérusalem
''Jérusalem'' is a grand opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was to be an adaptation and partial translation of the composer's original 1843 Italian opera, ''I Lombardi alla prima crociata''. It was the one opera which he regarded ...
''. His last public appearance was in 1851 in ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' at the
Théâtre des Italiens. He then devoted himself to teaching, first at Paris's
Conservatoire
A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...
(where he had been appointed to a professorship as far back as 1842), and afterwards privately. His students included the celebrated French virtuoso
bass Pol Plançon
Pol Henri Plançon (; 12 June 1851 – 11 August 1914) was a distinguished French operatic bass (''basse chantante''). He was one of the most acclaimed singers active during the 1880s, 1890s and early 20th century—a period often referred to as ...
(1851–1914), whose voice is preserved on
gramophone recordings made in 1902–1908. Duprez also devised a system of written exercises for singers and composed a few less than successful
operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
s.
In his 1880 book ''Souvenirs d'un chanteur'', Duprez, a close friend of Donizetti's, related in deeply felt terms the bitter setbacks and obstructions which the
Bergamo
Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...
composer had suffered in the theatrical world.
Duprez died at
Poissy
Poissy () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Pisciacais'' in French.
Poissy is one of ...
, near Paris, in 1896. He was the father of soprano
Caroline Duprez
Caroline Duprez (10 April 1832 - 17 April 1875) was a French soprano. She was the daughter and pupil of the tenor Gilbert Duprez. À member of the troupe of the Opéra-Comique from 1852 to 1857, she premiered numerous roles in the opéras-co ...
.
Vocal character
One can differentiate two distinct phases in Duprez's artistic life. Initially, being equipped by nature with a clear but comparatively thin voice, he appears to have stood in the French ''
haute-contre
The haute-contre (plural hautes-contre) was the primary French operatic tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera, from the middle of the seventeenth century until the latter part of the eighteenth century.
History
This voice ...
'' tradition of singing. So, when he first went to Italy, he naturally assumed equivalent ''tenore contraltino'' roles in operas written by Rossini. However, he failed to make any great impression on Italian audiences with his Rossinian endeavours, perhaps because of his deeply rooted disinclination to indulge in displays of coloratura.
While in Italy, he began by modelling himself on the bel-canto tenor
Rubini, whose bravura vocalism was a byword for sweetness and elegiac inflexion. Soon, however, he found a new source of inspiration in the person of
Domenico Donzelli
Domenico Donzelli (2 February 1790 – 31 March 1873) was an Italian tenor with a robust voice who enjoyed an important career in Paris, London and his native country during the 1808-1841 period.
Biography
Donzelli can be regarded as an off ...
, the then greatest living "baritonal" tenor. Donzelli possessed a robust voice and a deliberately darkened
timbre
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or musical tone, tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voice ...
, coupled with firmly accented diction, immense nobility of phrasing and a vibrant, intense method of acting. The merging of Rubini and Donzelli's contrasting styles in Duprez, and the introduction of the famous
high C
C or Do is the first note and semitone of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63 Hz. The actual frequ ...
from the chest (which soon became a standard feature of Romantic singing), gave rise to a fresh category of tenor, the ''tenore di forza''. The dramatic tenor of the present day is a direct descendant in terms of range, tessitura and tonal thrust from this kind of mid-19th century voice first exemplified by Duprez.
[
The real origin of the "high C from the chest" is much disputed, nonetheless. For example, Paolo Scudo, a music critic employed by the '']Revue des Deux Mondes
The ''Revue des deux Mondes'' (, ''Review of the Two Worlds'') is a monthly French-language literary, cultural and current affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829.
According to its website, "it is today the place for debates a ...
'', considered that Manuel García, a tenor of an earlier generation to that of Duprez, was already capable of delivering the chest high C: but true or not, this reputed accomplishment does not diminish Duprez's historical significance. García (given his favoured style and personal taste) avoided delivering on stage any such "shriek of a strangulated capon" (as Rossini described the note's sound), whereas Duprez transformed it into "a cry of the soul", over which innumerable tenors, for better or worse, have tortured themselves ever since. (Recently developed vocal techniques have enabled some modern-day lyric tenors to sing not only the chest high C, but also to execute the notorious high F in Bellini's ''I puritani'' in a full head voice without resort to falsetto. The results, however, cannot be described as beautiful or alluring.)
Duprez was a small man and, regrettably, the chest high C was an element of his vocal mechanism which soon took a toll on his physical resources. According to
Berlioz, his voice sounded "hardened" as early as 1838, at the premiere of ''Benvenuto Cellini'', and over the next 10 years, despite some isolated successes, his singing continued to deteriorate. Finally, Duprez was driven into an early retirement from the stage and he took up teaching.
Musical and dramatic works
![Houghton M1500](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Houghton_M1500.D935_J4_1853_-_Duprez_181.jpg)
''(List from German Wikipedia)''
* ''La Cabane du pechêur'', Comic Opera (Libretto: Edmond Duprez), 1st prodn. 1826
* ''Le Songe du Comte Egmont'', Lyric Scena (Libretto: Edmond Duprez), 1st prodn. 1842
* ''La Lettre au bon Dieu'', Comic Opera (Libretto: Eugène Scribe), 1st prodn. 1853
* ''Jéliotte'', or ''Un Passe-temps de duchesse'', Operetta, 1st prodn. 1854
* ''Samson'', Operetta (Libretto by Edmond Duprez after Alexandre Dumas ''père''), 1st prodn. 1857
* ''Amélina'', 1860
* ''La pazzia della regina'', 1st prodn. 1877
* ''Tariotti''
* ''Zephora''
Published writings
* ''L'art du chant'', Paris, 1845 (accessible online in a French / German 1846 edition a
IMSLP
* ''La mélodie: Études complémentaires vocales et dramatiques de 'L'art du chant' '', Paris, Au Ménestrel, 1874 (accessible online a
IMSLP
* ''Souvenirs d'un chanteur'', Paris, Levy, 1880 (accessible online a
Gallica - B.N.F.
* ''Récréations de mon grand áge'' (2 volumes), Paris, 1888
References
Notes
Sources
* This article contains substantial material translated from
Gilbert Duprez in the Italian Wikipedia.
* AA.VV. - ''Dentro Donizetti'' - Bolis Edizioni - Bergamo 1983
* Caruselli, Salvatore (ed.), ''Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica'', Longanesi &C. Periodici S.p.A., Roma, ''ad nomen''
*Pierre Girod, ''L'Art du chant de Gilbert Duprez. Voix perdue ou voies oubliées ?'', Paris, CNSMDP, 2011.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duprez, Gilbert
1806 births
1896 deaths
Singers from Paris
French operatic tenors
19th-century French male opera singers
Conservatoire de Paris faculty
Burials at Montmartre Cemetery
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Tenor contraltinos