Henri-Bernard Dabadie by Godefroy Engelmann

Henri-Bernard Dabadie in Spontini's Fernand Cortez

Henri-Bernard Dabadie (19 January 1797 – 20 May 1853) was a French

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

, particularly associated with

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 ...

and Auber roles.

Life and career

Born in Pau, Dabadie studied at the

Paris Conservatory 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 ...

and made his debut at the

Paris Opéra The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be k ...

in 1819 as Cinna in Spontini's ''

La Vestale ''La vestale'' (''The Vestal Virgin'') is an opera composed by Gaspare Spontini to a French libretto by Étienne de Jouy. It takes the form of a ''tragédie lyrique'' in three acts. It was first performed on 15 December 1807 by the Académie Impé ...

''. He was to remain at the Opéra until 1836, creating roles specifically written for him by Rossini – notably the Pharaon in ''

Moïse et Pharaon Moise is a given name and surname, with differing spellings in its French and Romanian origins, both of which originate from the name Moses (given name), Moses: Moïse is the French spelling of Moses, while Moise is the Romanian spelling. As a su ...

'', Raimbaud in ''

Le comte Ory ''Le comte Ory'' (''Count Ory'') is a comic opera written by Gioachino Rossini in 1828. Some of the music originates from his opera ''Il viaggio a Reims'' written three years earlier for the coronation of Charles X of France, Charles X. The French ...

'', and ''

Guillaume 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 Sc ...

''. He also created roles in opera by Auber – Pietro in ''

La muette de Portici ''La muette de Portici'' (''The Mute Girl of Portici'', or ''The Dumb Girl of Portici''), also called ''Masaniello'' () in some versions, is an opera in five acts by Daniel Auber, with a libretto by Germain Delavigne, revised by Eugène Scribe. ...

'', Jolicoeur in ''Le Philtre'', and Jean in ''Le Serment''. He also sang in Italy, where he created Belcore in

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 ...

's ''

L'elisir d'amore ''L'elisir d'amore'' (''The Elixir of Love'', ) is a ' (opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's ' (1831). The opera premiere ...

'', in Milan on 12 May 1832. On 6 November 1821, Dabadie married soprano Zulmée Leroux (1795–1877), Commons:File:Reconstituted record of marriage 6 Novembre 1821 Bernard Dabadie and Zulmée Leroux V3E-M 247 vue 21-51 archives AD075ER V3E M 00247 00619 C.JPG who began using her married name Dabadie, when she sang at the Paris Opera, where she created the role of Sinaide in ''Moise'' and Jemmy in ''Guillaume Tell''.

References

Bibliography

* Mancini, Roland and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition) (eds): ''Guide de l'opéra'' (Paris: Fayard, 1995); * Tamvaco, Jean-Louis (2000). "Dabadie / Leroux es, pp. 919–921, in ''Les Cancans de l'Opéra: Chroniques de l'Académie Royale de Musique et du théâtre, à Paris sous les deux Restaurations''.

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

. 1307 pages. . . * Warrack, John; West, Ewan (1992). ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Dabadie, Henri-Bernard 1797 births 1853 deaths 19th-century French male opera singers Conservatoire de Paris alumni French operatic baritones People from Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques