Jean Morère (6 October 1836 – February 1887) was a French operatic tenor, active from 1861 to 1871. He created the title role in Verdi's ''

Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Friedri ...

'' and sang primarily at the

Paris Opera 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 ...

and at La Monnaie in Brussels. He was born in

Couladère Couladère (; oc, Coladèra) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions ...

and died 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 ...

at the age of 50.

Life and career

Morère was born in Couladère, a commune in the

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country's ...

department in southwestern France. He studied first in

and then 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 ...

with Paul Läget. He graduated from the Conservatoire in 1861, winning one of the three First Prizes in singing. The correspondent for '' Dwight's Journal of Music'', who attended the competition, wrote:

M. Morère is a tenor with a pleasant quality of voice, what you may call a pretty voice, sings with taste, and exhibits undoubted marks of talent.

Morère made his debut at the

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

's '' Il trovatore'' in 1861 and sang there in the world premiere of Victor Sieg's cantata ''Ivanhoe'' in 1864. He created the title role in Verdi's ''

'', also at the Paris Opera, on 11 March 1867. Elsewhere, he sang Riccardo in ''

Un ballo in maschera ''Un ballo in maschera'' ''(A Masked Ball)'' is an 1859 opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The text, by Antonio Somma, was based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, '' Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué''. The ...

'' at Opéra de Marseille in 1864. He also sang at La Monnaie in Brussels in the 1865–66 and 1869-70 seasons, where his roles included Vasco da Gama in the theatre's first production of

Giacomo Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le di ...

's ''

L'Africaine ''L'Africaine'' (''The African Woman'') is an 1865 French ''grand opéra'' in five acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. Meyerbeer and Scribe began working on the opera in 1837, using the title ''L'Africaine'', bu ...

'' (1865) and the title role in Meyerbeer's '' Robert le diable'' (1870).Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura (2005).
"Morère (real name, Couladère), Jean"
'' Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians''. Retrieved online via

HighBeam Research HighBeam Research was a paid search engine and full text online archive owned by Gale, a subsidiary of Cengage, for thousands of newspapers, magazines, academic journals, newswires, trade magazines, and encyclopedias in English. It was headquar ...

3 May 2013 . Kutsch, K.J. and Riemens, Leo (2003). ''

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 ...

'', 4th ed., Band 5, p. 3216. München: K.G. Sauer Morère suffered a mental breakdown in 1871 in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, and retired from the stage. He died in a sanatorium in Toulouse at the age of 50 after years of mental illness. His wife had died the previous year. At the time of his death, Morère left three children, a grown daughter who was working as a piano teacher, and two young sons aged 10 and 5.''

Le Ménestrel ''Le Ménestrel'' (The Minstrel) was an influential French music journal published weekly from 1833 until 1940. It was founded by Joseph-Hippolyte l'Henry and originally printed by Poussièlgue. In 1840 it was acquired by the music publishers Heu ...

'' (13 February 1887)
"Nécrologie"
p. 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morere, Jean French operatic tenors 1836 births 1887 deaths 19th-century French male opera singers People from Haute-Garonne