Salignac, Thomas (real name, Eustace Thomas)
Salignac, Thomas (real name, Eustace Thomas)
Salignac, Thomas (real name, Eustace Thomas) , French tenor, opera director, and teacher; b. Générac, near Nîmes, March 19, 1867; d. Paris, 1945. He studied in Marseilles and with Duvernoy at the Paris Cons. In 1893 he became a member of the Paris Opéra-Comique. On Dec. 11, 1896, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y. as Don José, remaining on its roster for that season and again from 1898 to 1903. He also sang at London’s Covent Garden (1897–99; 1901–04) and again at the Paris Opéra-Comique (1905–14). He sang in the premieres of operas by Laparra, Leroux, Milhaud, and Widor, and in the private premiere of Falla’s El retablo de Maese Pedro (1923). In 1913–14 he was director of the Nice Opera, and later of an opéra comique company which toured North America in 1926. He was founder-ed. of the journal Lyrica (1922–39), and a teacher at the American Cons. in Fontainebleau (1922–23) and at the Paris Cons. (from 1924).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire