Delmas, Jean-François

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Delmas, Jean-François

Delmas, Jean-François , famous French bass-baritone; b. Lyons, April 14, 1861; d. St. Alban de Monthel, Sept. 29,1933. He was a pupil of Bussine and Obin at the Paris Cons., where he won the premier prix for singing in 1886. He made his opératic debut at the Paris Opéra in 1886 as St.-Bris in Les Huguenots. He was a regular member there until his retirement in 1927, idolized by the public, and unexcelled as an interpreter of Wagner, in whose works he created the principal bass parts in several French premieres. He created also the chief roles in Massenet’s Le Mage (1891) and Thais (1894), Leroux’s Astarté (1901), Saint-Saёns’s Les Barbares (1901), and Erlanger’s Le Fils de l′étoile (1904). In addition to his enormous French repertoire, Delmas also sang in the opéras of Gluck, Mozart, and Weber.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire