Jane Bathori (14 June 1877 – 25 January 1970) was a French

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...

. She was famous on the operatic stage and important in the development of contemporary French music.

Life and career

Born Jeanne-Marie Berthier, she originally studied piano and planned a career as concert pianist but soon turned to singing, making her professional debut some time in 1898 at the small '' Théâtre de la Bodinière'' in the

Rue Saint-Lazare The Rue Saint-Lazare is a street in the 8th and 9th arrondissements of Paris, France. It starts at 9 Rue Bourdaloue and 1 Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, and ends at Place Gabriel-Péri and Rue de Rome. History This street already existed in 1700 unde ...

in a concert to celebrate the poet Paul Verlaine.Girard, Victor
"Jane Bathori"
Marston Records, 1998 In the same year she made her debut in the ''grands concerts'' at the ''Concerts du Conservatoire'' followed by performances in Fauré's ''La Naissance de Vénus'' and Saint-Saëns's ''Messe de Requiem''. During the season 1899–1900 she made her operatic debut at

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

.Cox, David
"Bathori, Jane"
Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 12 March 2015 Her first roles included

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

parts such as Mimi in '' La bohème'' and Micaëla in ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

''. In the early 1900s Bathori began studying with

Pierre-Émile Engel François Pierre Émile Engel (Paris 15 February 1847 – Paris 10th arrondissement 18 July 1927) was a French operatic tenor active on the stages of Brussels, Paris, Monte-Carlo and other European cities where he sang leading roles in several w ...

, whom she married in 1908. She became celebrated for her performance of Ravel's song cycle'' Shéhérazade'' and gave the premières of his ''

Histoires naturelles ''Histoires naturelles'' ("Natural Histories") is a song cycle by Maurice Ravel, composed in 1906. It sets five poems by Jules Renard to music for voice and piano. Ravel's pupil Manuel Rosenthal created a version for voice and orchestra.

'' (of which she was the dedicatee) and of his ''Chansons madécasses''. In 1917 Bathori became the director of the ''Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier''. In the early 1920s she played an important role in the propagation of new music of this period, Jean-Pierre Thiollet, ''88 notes pour piano solo'' (Magland: Neva Editions, 2015), pp. 102–103. especially by some of the members of Les Six, giving many first performances of their works and those of others. Throughout the 1930s Bathori appeared every year at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In 1935 she was appointed to the Legion of Honour for her services to French music. During the German occupation of France in the Second World War she made Buenos Aires her home. After her return to France she taught singing, and gave frequent talks for French radio. Bathori died in Paris in 1970, aged 92.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bathori, Jane 1877 births 1970 deaths 19th-century French women opera singers 20th-century French women opera singers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French operatic mezzo-sopranos Singers from Paris