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Jeanne Maubourg (November 10, 1873 – 9 May 1953) was a Belgian opera singer. She sang with the
"Forgotten Opera Singers: Jeanne Maubourg"
''Forgotten Opera Singers'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Maubourg, Jeanne 1873 births 1953 deaths Belgian opera singers Belgian women singers Operatic mezzo-sopranos Belgian actresses Metropolitan Opera people People from Namur (city)
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
in New York from 1909 to 1914, taught voice in Montreal, and was heard in Canadian radio dramas in the 1930s and 1940s.
Early life
Jeanne Maubourg was born Jeanne Elisabeth Goffaux in Namur, the daughter of Alexis Hippolyte Goffaux, a musical conductor, and Marie Anne Nottet. (Her birth record gives 1873 as the date; most secondary sources give 1875 as the year.)
Career
Maubourg, a mezzo-soprano, began her opera career at theThéâtre de la Monnaie
The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...
in 1897. She performed at London's Covent Garden for four seasons beginning in 1900. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
from 1909 to 1914. She was in the cast when Arturo Toscanini conducted the American premiere of Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...
's '' Armide'' in 1910, sharing the stage with Enrico Caruso, Olive Fremstad
Olive Fremstad (14 March 1871 – 21 April 1951) was the stage name of Anna Olivia Rundquist, a celebrated Swedish-American opera diva who sang in both the mezzo-soprano and soprano ranges.Rosenthal and Warrack (1979) p. 180
Background
Born ...
, Louise Homer
Louise Beatty Homer (April 30, 1871May 6, 1947) was an American operatic contralto who had an active international career in concert halls and opera houses from 1895 until her retirement in 1932.
After a brief stint as a vaudeville entertainer ...
and Alma Gluck
Alma Gluck (May 11, 1884October 27, 1938) was a Romanian-born American soprano.
Biography
Gluck was born as Reba Feinsohn to a Jewish family in Iași, Romania, the daughter of Zara and Leon Feinsohn. Gluck moved to the United States at a you ...
. She was also in the American premieres of ''Le donne curiose
''Le donne curiose'' (English: ''The Inquisitive Women'') is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to a text by after Carlo Goldoni's play .
Performance history
The first dramatic work by Wolf-Ferrari to achieve more than local notice ...
'' in 1912 and '' Boris Gudonov'' in 1913, both under Toscanini's baton. Her "large repertoire" also included roles in ''La Périchole
''La Périchole'' () is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French libretto based on the 1829 one act play '' Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement'' by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived o ...
'', ''La bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...
'', ''Cavalleria rusticana
''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play ...
'', '' Carmen'', ''Hansel and Gretel''. ''Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...
,'' ''Tales of Hoffmann
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in ...
'', ''Coppélia
''Coppélia'' (sometimes subtitled: ''La Fille aux Yeux d'Émail'' (The Girl with the Enamel Eyes)) is a comic ballet from 1870 originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles-Louis-à ...
'', ''Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...
'', ''Manon Lescaut
''The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut'' ( ) is a novel by Antoine François Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of ''Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité'' (''Memoirs and Adventures of a Ma ...
'', '' Otello'', '' La traviata'', and ''Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...
''. She sang in an operetta on Broadway, ''The Lilac Domino
''Der lila Domino'' (''The Lilac Domino'') is an operetta in three acts composed by Charles Cuvillier. The original German libretto is by Emmerich von Gatti and Bela Jenbach, about a gambling count who falls in love at a masquerade ball with a n ...
'' (1914–1915). She had a reputation for being an intelligent and good-natured performer.
In 1915 she joined the Chicago Opera for a year, and in 1916 she performed in Montreal, in ''Gillette de Narbonne
''Gillette de Narbonne'' is an ''opéra comique'' in three acts, with music by Edmond Audran and words by Alfred Duru and Henri Chivot. It is based on a fabliau from ''The Decameron'' and depicts a rejected bride posing as another woman to decei ...
''. She stayed in Montreal, and she was a member of the Canadian Operetta Society from 1923. Maubourg taught voice students in Montreal, counting among her students Pierrette Alarie, Fleurette Beauchamp-Huppé, Estelle Mauffette, and Monique Leyrac. Film appearances by Maubourg included a role in ''Le Pére Chopin'' (1945). She hosted a program on Radio Canada
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government ...
, and acted in the longrunning radio dramas ''La Pension Velder'' (1938–1942) and ''Métropole'' (1943–1956).
Personal life
Maubourg married three times. She married her first husband, French opera singer Claude Marie Bede Benedict, in 1911. They divorced in 1915. She married Canadian conductor Albert Roberval in 1918. She married French actor Auguste Aramini in 1947. She died in 1953, in Montreal, in her late seventies. There is a street named for her in her adopted city. Several recordings by Maubourg, from about 1917 and 1924, survive.References
External links
* * * * Ashot Arakelyan (September 19, 2014)"Forgotten Opera Singers: Jeanne Maubourg"
''Forgotten Opera Singers'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Maubourg, Jeanne 1873 births 1953 deaths Belgian opera singers Belgian women singers Operatic mezzo-sopranos Belgian actresses Metropolitan Opera people People from Namur (city)