Désiré (baritone)
Encyclopedia
Désiré was a French baritone
, who is particularly remembered for creating many comic roles in the works of the French operetta
composer Jacques Offenbach
. Désiré was a stage name; the artist's real name was Amable Courtecuisse, but for most of his life he was generally known as Désiré.
, or a nearby village, and studied bassoon, singing, and declamation at the Lille Conservatory. His first appearances were at small theatres in Belgium and northern France beginning in 1845.
In 1847 he arrived at the Théâtre Montmartre in Paris where he met Hervé
. He asked Hervé to provide him with a musical sketch (drawn from Cervantes' novel Don Quixote), in which the tall and thin Hervé as the Don was pitted against the short and plump Désiré as Sancho Pança. The sketch inspired what was later dubbed the first French operetta
, Hervé's Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança
, which premiered in 1848 at Adolphe Adam
's Théâtre National at the Cirque Olympique, but with Joseph Kelm, instead of Désiré, as Sancho Pança.
In subsequent years Désiré appeared in operetta theatres in Lille, Brussels
, and Marseille
. He also became a star at Hervé’s Parisian Folies-Concertantes (later the Folies-Nouvelles).
Finally he was engaged by Jacques Offenbach
for the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, where Désiré made his brilliantly successful debut on 16 May 1857 in Vent-du-Soir, ou l'horrible festin. Thereafter until 1873 he remained one of the star actors of Offenbach's company, appearing in many of the premieres of Offenbach's most famous operettas. His greatest success was his unforgettable portrayal of the role of Jupiter in Orpheus in the Underworld
, which premiered on 21 October 1858.
Désiré also appeared at other Parisian theatres, including the Théâtre des Variétés
, the Théâtre du Palais-Royal
, and the Athénée-Musicale, and also worked with the French operetta composer Charles Lecocq.
At the end of his career Désiré became increasingly addicted to alcohol and died, abandoned and in poverty, in Asnières-sur-Seine
.
unless otherwise noted:
In 1867 he also appeared at the Théâtre des Nouveautés
as Sganarelle in La statue du commandeur.
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
, who is particularly remembered for creating many comic roles in the works of the French operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
composer Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
. Désiré was a stage name; the artist's real name was Amable Courtecuisse, but for most of his life he was generally known as Désiré.
Life and career
He was born in LilleLille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, or a nearby village, and studied bassoon, singing, and declamation at the Lille Conservatory. His first appearances were at small theatres in Belgium and northern France beginning in 1845.
In 1847 he arrived at the Théâtre Montmartre in Paris where he met Hervé
Hervé (composer)
Hervé , real name Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger, was a French singer, composer, librettist, conductor and scene painter, whom Ernest Newman, following Reynaldo Hahn, credited with inventing the genre of operetta in Paris.-Life:Hervé was born in Houdain near Arras...
. He asked Hervé to provide him with a musical sketch (drawn from Cervantes' novel Don Quixote), in which the tall and thin Hervé as the Don was pitted against the short and plump Désiré as Sancho Pança. The sketch inspired what was later dubbed the first French operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
, Hervé's Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança
Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança
Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança is a one-act 'tableau grotesque' or 'grotesque scene' with music by Hervé after Cervantes, first produced in 1847, which has been dubbed ‘the first French operetta’, and a precursor of the opéra bouffe....
, which premiered in 1848 at Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle and Le corsaire , his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau , Le toréador and Si j'étais roi , and his Christmas...
's Théâtre National at the Cirque Olympique, but with Joseph Kelm, instead of Désiré, as Sancho Pança.
In subsequent years Désiré appeared in operetta theatres in Lille, Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, and Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
. He also became a star at Hervé’s Parisian Folies-Concertantes (later the Folies-Nouvelles).
Finally he was engaged by Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
for the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, where Désiré made his brilliantly successful debut on 16 May 1857 in Vent-du-Soir, ou l'horrible festin. Thereafter until 1873 he remained one of the star actors of Offenbach's company, appearing in many of the premieres of Offenbach's most famous operettas. His greatest success was his unforgettable portrayal of the role of Jupiter in Orpheus in the Underworld
Orpheus in the Underworld
Orphée aux enfers is an opéra bouffon , or opéra féerie in its revised version, by Jacques Offenbach. The French text was written by Ludovic Halévy and later revised by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux....
, which premiered on 21 October 1858.
Désiré also appeared at other Parisian theatres, including the Théâtre des Variétés
Théâtre des Variétés
The Théâtre des Variétés is a theatre and "salle de spectacles" at 7, boulevard Montmartre, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris. It was declared a monument historique in 1975.-History:...
, the Théâtre du Palais-Royal
Théâtre du Palais-Royal
The Théâtre du Palais-Royal is a 750 seat theatre at 38, rue Montpensier in Paris. In 1637 Cardinal Richelieu began work on a theatre on the east wing of the Palais-Royal building, to break the theatre monopoly of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and it was opened in 1641...
, and the Athénée-Musicale, and also worked with the French operetta composer Charles Lecocq.
At the end of his career Désiré became increasingly addicted to alcohol and died, abandoned and in poverty, in Asnières-sur-Seine
Asnières-sur-Seine
Asnières-sur-Seine is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France, along the river Seine. It is located from the center of Paris.-Name:...
.
Roles created
Works by OffenbachJacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
unless otherwise noted:
- 1857: Vent-du-Soir in Vent du soir, ou L’horrible festin
- 1857: Pigeonneau in Une demoiselle en loterie
- 1858: Mme Madou in Mesdames de la HalleMesdames de la HalleMesdames de la Halle is an opérette bouffe in one act by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Armand Lapointe. It was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, Paris on 3 March 1858. and was the first work of Offenbach's at the Bouffes with a chorus and a large cast...
- 1858: Dig-dig in La chatte métamorphosée en femmeLa chatte métamorphosée en femmeLa chatte métamorphosée en femme is a one-act opéra comique of 1858 with words by Eugene Scribe and Mélésville, and music by Jacques Offenbach.-Performance history:...
- 1858: Jupiter in Orpheus in the UnderworldOrpheus in the UnderworldOrphée aux enfers is an opéra bouffon , or opéra féerie in its revised version, by Jacques Offenbach. The French text was written by Ludovic Halévy and later revised by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux....
(in French) - 1859: Le marquis de Criquebœuf in L'omelette à la Follembuche by Léo DelibesLéo DelibesClément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
- 1859: Golo in Geneviève de BrabantGeneviève de BrabantGeneviève de Brabant is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach, first performed in Paris in 1859. The plot is based on the medieval legend of Genevieve of Brabant....
- 1860: Pan in Daphnis et ChloéDaphnis et Chloé (Offenbach)Daphnis et Chloé is a one-act opérette by Jacques Offenbach. The libretto was by Clairville and Jules Cordier , based on the story of Daphnis and Chloe....
- 1860: Grétry in Le musicien de l'avenir
- 1861: Maître Fortunio in La chanson de Fortunio
- 1861: Cornarino Cornarini in Le pont des soupirsLe pont des soupirsLe pont des soupirs is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Hector-Jonathan Cremieux and Ludovic Halévy.-Performance history:...
- 1861: Choufleuri in M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le . . .M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le . . .M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le... is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, in one act by Jacques Offenbach and the Duc de Morny...
- 1862: Adolphe Dunanan in Le voyage de MM Dunanan père & fils
- 1862: Cristobal in Bavard et bavardeLes bavardsLes bavards is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach, with a French libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter based on a story originally by Cervantes, ‘Los dos habladores’.-Performance history:...
- 1863: Fritzchen in Lischen et Fritzchen
- 1863: Bertolucci in Il signor FagottoIl signor FagottoIl signor Fagotto is a one-act opérette by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter and Étienne Tréfeu, first performed in 1863...
- 1864: Jol-Hiddin in Les géorgiennes
- 1864: Cabochon in Jeanne qui pleure et Jean qui rit
- 1864: Van Croquesec in Le serpent à plumes by Delibes
- 1865: Vautendon in Les bergers
- 1866: undetermined role in Didon by G. Blangini
- 1868: Tien-Tien in Fleurs-de-thé by Charles Lecocq
- 1869: undetermined role in L’écossais de Chatou by Léo DelibesLéo DelibesClément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
- 1869: Cabriolo in La princesse de Trébizonde
- 1869: Rafaël in La diva
- 1869: undetermined role in Le rajah de Mysore by Lecocq
- 1869: Cabriolo in La princesse de Trébizonde (revised 3-act version)
- 1871: Balabrelock in Boule-de-neige
- 1872: Raab in La timbale d'argent by Léon VasseurLéon VasseurFélix Augustin Joseph Vasseur, known as Léon Vasseur , was a French composer, organist and conductor. While working as a cathedral organist, he turned to composing operettas and soon had a hit with La timbale d'argent . He wrote another thirty operettas but never repeated that early success...
- 1873: undetermined role in La petite reine by Vasseur
In 1867 he also appeared at the Théâtre des Nouveautés
Théâtre des Nouveautés
The name Théâtre des Nouveautés has been used successively to refer to several different Parisian theatre companies and their buildings, beginning in 1827...
as Sganarelle in La statue du commandeur.
External links
- Obituary in The Era Almnack, 1874 by Edward Ledger (at Google Books)