Joseph-Antoine-Charles Couderc (10 March 1810 – 16 April 1875) was a French operatic

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 ...

(and later

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 ...

) prominent on the stages of the

Opéra Comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular '' opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent (and to a l ...

in Paris where he created numerous roles.

Life and career

Couderc was born in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

where his father had a grocery shop. He was working in his father's business when

Louis Benoît Alphonse Révial Alphonse Révial, real name Marie Pauline Françoise Louis Benoît Alphonse Révial (29 May 1810 – 13 October 1871) was a 19th-century French tenor and singing professor. Biography Born in Toulouse, Révial entered the Conservatoire de Paris o ...

(1810-1871) a tenor from Toulouse already studying at the

Conservatoire de Paris 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 ...

convinced him to study singing and facilitated his entry to the conservatory in 1830. After studying singing there under

Louis Nourrit Louis Nourrit (4 August 1780, Montpellier – 23 September 1831, Brunoy) was an early 19th-century French tenor. Throughout his operatic career, Nourrit also operated as a diamond merchant. Biography After he left Montpellier, he was admitted ...

, Couderc made his debut as Rodolphe in Boieldieu's ''Le petit chaperon de rouge'' at the Opéra-Comique in 1834. He created several roles with the company between 1834 and 1841 and was greatly admired for his acting ability. He sang in Belgium from 1842 until 1850 when he returned to the Opéra-Comique where he remained for the rest of his career singing leading tenor and later baritone roles.Duckett, William (ed.) (1853)
"Couderc, Charles"
(). ''Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture'', Vol. 6. M. Lévy Frères One of Couderc's last role creations was that of Baladon in

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera '' ...

's ''Vert-Vert'' in March 1869. He was originally to have sung the role of the Prince in the premiere of Offenbach's '' Fantasio'' the following year. Rehearsals had begun in early 1870, but were suspended when the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War caused the closure of the Paris theatres. When the opera finally premiered in 1872, Couderc had retired from the stage. In his later years he taught at the Paris Conservatory. He died in Paris at the age of 65. Kutsch, Karl-Josef and

Riemens, Leo Leonardus Antony Marinus Riemens (3 December 1910 – 3 April 1985) was a Dutch musicologist and cultural journalist. He wrote a book about Maria Callas, and together with Karl-Josef Kutsch began a reference book about opera singers in 1962, which ...

(2004)
"Couderc, Joseph-Antoine-Charles"
''

Großes Sängerlexikon ''Großes Sängerlexikon'' (''Biographical Dictionary of Singers'', literally: Large singers' lexicon) is a single-field dictionary of singers in classical music, edited by Karl-Josef Kutsch and Leo Riemens and first published in 1987. The first ...

'', Vol. 4, p. 929.

Walter de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

Roles created

Roles created by Couderc include: *Daniel in

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

's '' Le chalet'' (1834) *George in Halévy's '' L'éclair'' (1835) *Benedict in Auber's ''

L'ambassadrice ''L'ambassadrice'' is an opera or opéra comique in 3 acts by composer Daniel Auber. The work's French language libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. The opera's world premiere was staged by the Opéra-Co ...

'' (1836) *Horace de Massarena in Auber's ''

Le domino noir ''Le domino noir'' (''The Black Domino'') is an ''opéra comique'' by the French composer Daniel Auber, first performed on 2 December 1837 by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris.Wild and Charlton (2005), p. 226. The libre ...

'' (1837) *Péricart in Onslow's '' Le duc de Guise'' (1837) *Henrique de Sandoval in Auber's ''

Les diamants de la couronne ''Les diamants de la couronne'' (''The Crown Diamonds'') is an ''opéra comique'' by the French composer Daniel Auber, first performed by the Opéra-Comique at the second Salle Favart in Paris on 6 March 1841. The libretto (in three acts) is by ...

'' (1841) *Shakespeare in

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

's '' Le songe d'une nuit d'été'' (1850) *Clifford in Halévy's '' Le nabab'' (1853) *Jean in Massé's ''

Les noces de Jeannette ''Les noces de Jeannette'' (''Jeannette's Wedding'') is an '' opéra comique'' in one act by Victor Massé to a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. It had its premiere in Paris in the Salle Favart at the Opéra-Comique, 4 February 1853. ...

'' (1853) *Lanskoi in Auber's '' La circassienne'' (1861) *Laerte in Thomas's ''

Mignon ''Mignon'' is an 1866 ''opéra comique'' (or opera in its second version) in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's 1795-96 novel '' Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre''. The ...

'' (1866) *Baladon in Offenbach's ''Vert-Vert'' (1869)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Couderc, Joseph-Antoine-Charles Operatic baritones French operatic tenors 1810 births 1875 deaths 19th-century French male opera singers Musicians from Toulouse