Francisque Delmas in Le Clown by Isaac de Camondo

Jean-François Delmas (14 April 1861 – 29 September 1933), or Francisque Delmas was a French

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing thr ...

who created roles in many French operas including Athanaël in ''

Thaïs Thaïs or Thais ( el, Θαΐς; flourished 4th century BC) was a famous Greek ''hetaira'' who accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaigns. Likely from Athens, she is most famous for instigating the burning of Persepolis. At the time, Thaï ...

''. Delmas was born in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

and studied at the

Paris Conservatoire 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 ...

winning first prizes for operatic singing. He made his debut in 1886 as Saint-Bris in ''

Les Huguenots () is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer and is one of the most popular and spectacular examples of grand opera. In five acts, to a libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work suc ...

'' 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 ...

. He remained with that company until 1927 and rarely sang outside France. He was known for the power and evenness of his voice with a sonorous quality in the bass range and an extended upper register, which allowed him to sing classic baritone roles such as

Iago Iago () is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago hates ...

.Steane (2008) p. 115 Outside France he appeared at the Mariinsky in

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, the San Carlo in Lisbon, and the

Monte Carlo Opera House Monte may refer to: Places Argentina * Argentine Monte, an ecoregion * Monte Desert * Monte Partido, a ''partido'' in Buenos Aires Province Italy * Monte Bregagno * Monte Cassino * Montecorvino (disambiguation) * Montefalcione Portugal * Mont ...

in Monaco.Giroud (2009) His recordings for G&T,

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 ...

Zonophone Zonophone (early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone) was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey, by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company but was applied to records and machines sold by Seaman's Universal Talki ...

Fonotipia 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 ...

, Odéon, and Opéra-Saphir are highly sought after by collectors. He also created roles in '' Le Mage'' (Amrou), ''

Messidor Messidor () was the tenth month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the Latin word , which means ''harvest''. Messidor was the first month of the summer quarter (). It started on 19 or 20 June. It ended on 18 or 19 Jul ...

'' (Mathias), L'etranger (l'Etranger), '' Ariane'' (Périthoüs), ''

Monna Vanna ''Monna Vanna'' (russian: Монна Ванна) is an unfinished opera by Sergei Rachmaninoff after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck. Rachmaninoff had completed Act I in short vocal score, with piano accompaniment, and then he went to ask for permis ...

'' (Marco Colonna), ''

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

'' (Fabius), and sang in the Paris premiere of ''

Fervaal ''Fervaal'', Op. 40, is an opera (''action musicale'' or lyric drama) in three acts with a prologue by the French composer Vincent d'Indy. The composer wrote his own libretto, based in part on the lyric poem ''Axel'' by the Swedish author Esaias ...

'' (Arfagard). Delmas died in

Saint-Alban-de-Montbel Saint-Alban-de-Montbel () is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. World heritage site It is home to one or more prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements that are part of th ...

(near

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chambér ...

) at the age of 72, and is buried in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent de Montmartre with his wife, the soprano Blanche d'Ervilly (1853–1920).

Notes and references

Sources

*Landru, Philippe
Cimetière Saint-Vincent de Montmartre
Cimetières de France et d'ailleurs, 2009 *Giroud, Vincent

Marston Records, 2009 * Steane, J. B.
"Delmas, Jean-François"
in Laura Williams Macy (ed.), ''The Grove Book of Opera Singers'', Oxford University Press, 2008, P. 115. *Warrack, John Hamilton and West, Ewan (eds.)
"Delmas. Francisque"
''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 121–122.

External links

– Postcards showing Delmas as Phur in Xavier Leroux's '' Astarté'' and in the title role of Mozart's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

''
Audio file on Archive.org
– Delmas singing "Bénédiction des Poignards" ("Blessing of the Daggers") from ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Delmas 1861 births 1933 deaths Operatic bass-baritones Musicians from Lyon Conservatoire de Paris alumni 19th-century French male opera singers 20th-century French male opera singers