Jacobs, René

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Jacobs, René

Jacobs, René, noted Belgian countertenor and conductor; b. Ghent, Oct. 30, 1946. He pursued training in philology at the Univ. of Ghent, then studied voice with Louis Devos in Brussels and Lucie Frateur in The Hague; subsequently pursued an international career as a performer with various early- music groups, as an opera singer, and as a recitalist; also taught at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel. He has been particularly successful in works by Cavalli, Monteverdi, Charpentier, Gluck, and Handel. As a conductor, he was active with his own Collegium Vocale. He conducted his own eds. of Cavalli’s Giasone at the Innsbruck Festival in 1988 and of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Salzburg Festival in 1993. He is the author of La Controverse sur le timbre de contre-ténor (1985).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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