Opéra français

Opéra français. Founded in Montreal in 1893 as the Société d'opéra français, to present regular seasons of operas and plays at the Théâtre français, located at the corner of Ste-Catherine and St-Dominique streets. Among the shareholders of the company, which was capitalized at $10,000, were Joseph-Marie Fortier, Edmond Hardy, the managing director Maurice-Robineau Sallard, and the theatre owner Archibald Dunbar Taylor. On 2 Oct 1893 a troupe of singers and actors recruited from France opened the inaugural season with Offenbach's La Fille du tambour-major. Gabriel Dorel conducted the orchestra of 25 and chorus of 24. There were seven performances a week during the ensuing season, and a large number of comedies, dramas, and operettas were presented, including La Mascotte, Le Petit Duc, Boccace, and Les Cloches de Corneville. The cast was entirely French in origin, and was headed by Mmes Cécile DeGoyon, Blonville, Hélène Giraud, and Merville and Messrs Belisson, Henri Giraud, and Delafontaine. The 1894-5 season allotted a larger role to opera when Edmond Hardy succeeded Sallard as manager. Among the operas presented were Carmen, Faust, Rigoletto, La Fille du régiment, and Si j'étais roi. The singer Alice Cléry and the baritones Montfort and Portalier joined the troupe.

The 1895-6 season, the most ambitious, ended prematurely in a scandal. A new director, Arthur Durieu, had engaged such prima donnas as Mmes Essiani, Bennati, and Conti-Bessi and the baritone Vandiric, and the season opened with Thomas's Le Songe d'une nuit d'été, followed by Mireille, Martha, Norma, Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen, Les Huguenots (with a reduced score for small orchestra by Dorel), and William Tell, among others. Early in 1896 there was talk of the venture's financial difficulties. On the evening of 12 February the curtain failed to rise on The Barber of Seville, and, after a lengthy pause, a singer came out to explain to the public that a considerable amount of money was owing to the artists. Meanwhile, members of the chorus had occupied the director's office. The indignant spectators gradually left the hall. The press made much of the affair, writing about the distress of the artists who sought to return to France. The St-Jean-Baptiste Society offered the hall of the Monument national, where the company gave Le Prophète and also a benefit performance 22 February. Ernest Lavigne offered the artists a week of engagements at the Sohmer Park concerts. A few, including Mme Bennati, settled in Montreal, but the majority eventually returned to France. That autumn Lavigne tried to reorganize the company with other artists but was only moderately successful. The Théâtre français, which had been renovated in 1895 and equipped with electricity, was used for variety shows until it was destroyed by fire in March 1900.

Author Gilles Potvin

Bibliography

Pelletier, Frédéric. 'L'Opéra français,' Entre-Nous, vol 2, Jan 1931

Barrière, Mireille. L'Opéra français de Montréal, 2002

Links to Other Sites
Opéra de Québec
The Opéra de Québec website offers their current concert schedule, historical notes, director’s biography, and a fascinating “Opera Demystified” feature for would-be opera fans.

History of Opera Performance in Canada
An illustrated history of opera performance in Canada. From the Virtual Gramophone website.

Opera.ca
Opera.ca is the voice of opera in Canada. Check their website for news about recent programs, and events of interest to Canada’s opera community. See also Opera.ca's regular e-newsletter “High Notes!” and links to Canada's major professional opera and music theatre companies.