Édouard de Reszke, originally Edward, (22 December 185325 May 1917) was a Polish bass from Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

. Born with an impressive natural voice and equipped with compelling histrionic skills, he became one of the most illustrious opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 singers active in Europe and America during the late-Victorian Era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

.

Career

Édouard de Reszke was born into a well-to-do and cultured family in Warsaw, where he first learned to sing. He continued his voice studies in Italy with Giovanni Sbriglia

Giovanni Sbriglia

Giovanni Sbriglia , was an Italian tenor and prominent teacher of singing.A native of Naples, Sbriglia attended the city's music conservatory before making his debut, aged 21, at the Teatro San Carlo. He then performed throughout Italy before being engaged by Max Maretzek for New York City's...

, a leading pedagogue. Initially, he did not want to become an operatic performer but at the urging of his younger sister, Josephine (Józefina), he accepted an engagement with the Paris Opéra. He was chosen by the composer Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

 to make his debut in the first Paris performance of Aida

Aida

Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...

 on 22 April 1876, appearing under the composer's baton as the King of Egypt.

De Reszke's older brother was the renowned lyric-dramatic tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 Jean de Reszke

Jean de Reszke

Jean de Reszke, born Jan Mieczyslaw, , was a Polish tenor. Renowned internationally for the high quality of his singing and the elegance of his bearing, he became the biggest male opera star of the late 19th century....

 (1850–1925), with whom he would sing often in Paris, London and New York City during the course of the next two decades. In 1887, for example, the brothers performed together in the 500th performance of Gounod

Charles Gounod

Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...

's Faust

Faust (opera)

Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...

 at the Paris Opéra

Palais Garnier

The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...

.

Josephine

Josephine de Reszke

Joséphine de Reszke, in Polish Józefina Reszke, was a Polish soprano. Born in Warsaw, she was the sister of the bass Edouard and the tenor Jean de Reszke, famous singers in their own rights. She began her studies with her mother and with a Mme...

, Edouard and Jean's sister, also embarked on a career as an opera singer in Paris but she retired early from the stage after marrying an aristocrat while at the height of her powers. (Another sibling, Victor de Reszke, manifested more moderate talents as a vocalist.)

Between the start of 1880 and the end of 1900, Edouard de Reszke appeared on more than 300 occasions at the Royal Opera House

Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...

, Covent Garden, performing a wide range of roles in French, German and Italian operas, including works by Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

, Verdi, Rossini, Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...

, Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...

, Ponchielli

Amilcare Ponchielli

Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...

, Gounod, Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...

, Flotow

Friedrich von Flotow

Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow was a German composer. He is chiefly remembered for his opera Martha, which was popular in the 19th century....

 and Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

.

He was a huge favourite, too, with audiences at New York's Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 during the same era. (His only serious bass rival at the Met and Covent Garden was the elegant French virtuoso Pol Plancon

Pol Plançon

Pol-Henri Plançon was a distinguished French operatic bass . He was one of the most acclaimed singers active during the 1880s, 1890s and early 20th century—a period often referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera".In addition to being among the earliest international opera stars to have made...

 [1851–1914]; but the Frenchman, unlike de Reszke, barely touched Wagnerian opera.) He also sang in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 in 1891 and, in 1879–1881, at La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

. In 1903, he retired from the stage after his once superlative voice developed technical difficulties and went into a swift decline.

De Reszke taught singing for a while in London before returning to his estate in Poland, where he was adversely affected by the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 in Europe in 1914. Cut off from his brother by the fighting, he died in poverty on 25 May 1917 at a house in Garnek, near Częstochowa

Czestochowa

Częstochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 240,027 inhabitants . It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously the capital of Częstochowa Voivodeship...

, Poland. His grave is to be found at Borowno in that country, but his fame lives on as one of the greatest basses in operatic history.

Recordings

A tall, genial man, de Reszke possessed a big, smooth, flexible and ripe-toned voice that matched his imposing physique and extroverted personality. He could sing masterfully at all dynamic levels, according to the opera critic Herman Klein

Herman Klein

Herman Klein was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein...

, and was additionally blessed with a magnetic stage presence. During his prime, he was equally adroit at interpreting dramatic and comedic roles.

Regrettably he made only three, disappointing discs for the Columbia Phonograph Company in New York in 1903. By this date, as critic Michael Scott

Michael Scott (artistic director)

Michael Scott is the founder of the London Opera Society. In his role as the society's sole artistic director, he brought to London Marilyn Horne, Joan Sutherland, and Boris Christoff. He was also responsible for introducing Sherrill Milnes, Ruggero Raimondi, and Montserrat Caballe...

 notes in Volume One of The Record of Singing (Duckworth, London, 1977), his voice was in a severe state of deterioration due to wear and tear caused by years of unstintingly hard use and the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle that had featured too much food, drink and conviviality. The best of his Columbia discs is considered to be the Porter Song from Flotow's Martha

Martha (opera)

Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....

, performed in Italian, on which he delivers a fine trill.

De Reszke can also be heard singing briefly and dimly, but in seemingly more sonorous voice, on some of the crude Mapleson Cylinders

Mapleson Cylinders

The Mapleson Cylinders are a group of more than 100 phonograph cylinders recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera, primarily in the years 1901–1903, by the Met librarian Lionel Mapleson ....

 that were recorded live at the Met at the dawn of the 20th century. All his extant recordings are available on CD re-issues.

Édouard de Reszke – Appearances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

• 1880 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 13 April to 17 July
  • as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville
    The Barber of Seville
    The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
    
     (5, shared)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots
    Les Huguenots
    Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
    
     (3, shared)
  • as Giorgio in I puritani
    I puritani
    I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
    
     (3)
  • as Indra in Le roi de Lahore
    Le roi de Lahore
    Le roi de Lahore is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet. It was first performed at the Palais Garnier in Paris on 27 April 1877....
    
     (3, debut at Covent Garden in this role 13 April 1880)
  • as Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula
    La sonnambula
    La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
    
     (5, shared)
• 1881 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 19 April to 23 July
  • as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville (2)
  • as Gudal in The Demon
    The Demon (opera)
    The Demon is an opera in three acts by Russian composer Anton Rubinstein. The work was composed in 1871. The libretto was by Pavel Viskovatov, based on the poem of the same name by Mikhail Lermontov.-Background:...
    
     (4)
  • as Walter in Guillaume Tell
    William Tell (opera)
    Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...
    
     (3)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (3)
  • as The Prefect in Linda di Chamounix
    Linda di Chamounix
    Linda di Chamounix is an operatic melodramma semiserio in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered in Vienna, at the Kärntnertortheater, on May 19, 1842.-Performance history:...
    
     (2)
  • as Giorgio in I puritani (1)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette
    Roméo et Juliette
    Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
    
     (2)
  • as Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula (2)
• 1882 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 18 April to 20 July
  • as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville (4)
  • as Walter in Guillaume Tell (2)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (1)
  • as Giorgio in I puritani (1)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (1)
  • as Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula (2)
  • as Senon in Velléda (3)
• 1883 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 1 May to 21 July
  • as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville (2)
  • as Dalando in The Flying Dutchman
    The Flying Dutchman (opera)
    Der fliegende Holländer is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner.Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write "The Flying Dutchman" following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843...
    
     (2)
  • as Walter in Guillaume Tell (2)
  • as Alvise in La Gioconda (7)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (3)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin
    Lohengrin (opera)
    Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
    
     (2)
  • as Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro
    The Marriage of Figaro
    Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
    
     (2)
  • as Giorgio in I puritani (1)
  • as Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula (3)
• 1884 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 29 April to 26 July
  • as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville (2)
  • as Czar Peter in L'étoile du nord
    L'étoile du nord
    L'étoile du nord is an opéra comique in three acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe....
    
     (3)
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust
    Faust (opera)
    Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
    
     (5)
  • as Alvise in La Gioconda (3)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (4)
  • as The Prefect in Linda di Chamounix (1)
  • as (illegible data) in Lucrezia Borgia
    Lucrezia Borgia (opera)
    Lucrezia Borgia is a melodramma, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia Borgia was first performed on 26 December 1833 at La Scala, Milan with...
    
     (2)
  • as Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro (4)
  • as (illegible data) in Semiramide
    Semiramide
    Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Babylon...
    
     (1)
  • as Hagen in Sigurd
    Sigurd
    Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr) is a legendary hero of...
    
     (3)
• 1888 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 15 May to 21 July
  • as Don Pedro in L'Africaine
    L'Africaine
    L'africaine is a grand opera, the last work of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French libretto was written by Eugène Scribe. The opera is about fictitious events in the life of the real historical person Vasco da Gama...
    
     (2)
  • as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville (1)
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (7, shared)
  • as Walter in Guillaume Tell (2)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (4)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (6)
  • as Sarastro in The Magic Flute
    The Magic Flute
    The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
    
     (1)
  • as Mefistofele in Mefistofele
    Mefistofele
    Mefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito.-Composition history:...
    
     (1)
• 1889 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 18 May to 27 July
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (7, shared)
  • as Walter in Guillaume Tell (2)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (3)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (6, shared)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (7)
  • as Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula (2)
• 1890 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 19 May to 28 July
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (6, shared)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (6, shared)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (5)
  • as Zacharie in Le prophète
    Le prophète
    Le prophète is an opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe.-Performance history:...
    
     (5)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (5)
  • as Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula (1)
• 1891 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 6 April to 27 July
  • as Leporello in Don Giovanni
    Don Giovanni
    Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
    
     (5, shared)
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (12, shared)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (8)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (9)
  • as Plumketto in Martha
    Martha (opera)
    Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
    
     (2)
  • as Mefistofele in Mefistofele (2)
  • as Zacharie in Le Prophète (3)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (8, shared)
• 1892 — Royal Italian Opera Season from 16 May to 28 July
  • as Leporello in Don Giovanni
    Don Giovanni
    Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
    
     (2)
  • as L'Eremite in Elaine (5)
  • as Dalando in The Flying Dutchman (1)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (1)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (5, shared)
  • as Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro (2)
  • as Zacharie in Le prophète (1)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (3)
• 1893 — Royal Opera Season from 15 May to 29 July
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (6, shared)
  • as Dalando in The Flying Dutchman (2)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (2)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (6, shared)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (7, shared)
• 1894 — Royal Opera Season from 15 May to 29 July
  • as Ramfis in Aida
    Aida
    Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
    
     (2)
  • as L'Eremite in Elaine (2)
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (7, shared)
  • as The Roundhead Colonel in The Lady of Longford (2)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (4)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (7)
• 1896 — Royal Opera Season from 11 May to 28 July
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (6, shared)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (5, shared)
  • as Plumketto in Martha (2)
  • as Mefistofele in Mefistofele (2, shared)
  • as Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
    Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
    Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
    
     (5)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (8, shared)
  • as King Mark in Tristan und Isolde
    Tristan und Isolde
    Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
    
     (4)
• 1897 — Royal Opera Season from 10 May to 28 July
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (7)
  • as Marcel in Les Huguenots (5, shared)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (7)
  • as Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger (3)
  • as Almaviva in 'The Marriage of Figaro (2)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (6, shared)
  • as Der Wanderer in Siegfried
    Siegfried (opera)
    Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
    
     (4)
  • as King Mark in Tristan und Isolde (3)
• 1898 — Royal Opera Season from 9 May to 16 July
  • as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville (1)
  • as Leporello in Don Giovanni (1)
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (7, shared)
  • as Hagen in Götterdämmerung
    Götterdämmerung
    is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
    
     (3)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (7, shared)
  • as Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger (4)
  • as Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro (2, shared)
  • as King Mark in Tristan und Isolde (4, shared)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (at least once)
• 1899 — Royal Opera Season from 8 May to 24 July
  • as Leporello in Don Giovanni (3)
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (8, shared)
  • as St. Bris in Les Huguenots (2, shared)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (6, shared)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (5, shared)
  • as King Mark in Tristan und Isolde (4)
• 1900 — Royal Opera Season from 14 May to 30 July
  • as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville (1)
  • as Leporello in Don Giovanni (2)
  • as Méphistophélès in Faust (8, shared)
  • as Marcel in Les Huguenots (2)
  • as Heinrich in Lohengrin (6, shared)
  • as Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette (5, shared)
  • as Ramfis in Aida (at least once)

Gala performances by Jean and Édouard de Reszke

at Covent Garden and Command Performances at Windsor Castle:

• 2 July 1889 — Gala in honour of the Shah
  Shah
  Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
  
   of Persia:
  • Éduoard as Mephistofele in Act I of Mefistofele
    Mefistofele
    Mefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito.-Composition history:...
    
     and as Mefistofele in Act 4 of Faust
    Faust (opera)
    Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
    
    
  • Jean as Faust in Act 4 of Faust
• 8 July 1891 — Visit of the Emperor and Empress of Germany
  • Éduoard as Enrico in Act 1 of Lohengrin
    Lohengrin (opera)
    Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
    
    , as Laurent in Act 4 of Roméo et Juliette
    Roméo et Juliette
    Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
    
     and as San Bris in Act 4 of Les Huguenots
    Les Huguenots
    Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
    
    
  • Jean as Lohengrin in Act 1 of Lohengrin, as Romeo in Act 4 of Roméo et Juliette and as Raoul in Act 4 of Les Huguenots
• 4 July 1893 — Gala in honour of the marriage of the Duke of York
  Duke of York
  The Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...
  
   and Princess Mary of Teck
  • Éduoard as Laurent in Roméo et Juliette
  • Jean as Romeo in Roméo et Juliette
• 23 June 1897 — 60th Anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession
  • Éduoard as Laurent in Act 3 of Roméo et Juliette
  • Jean as Romeo in Act 3 of Roméo et Juliette
• 27 June 1898 — Command Performance at Windsor Castle
  Windsor Castle
  Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
  
  (no data on programme)
• 24 May 1899 — Command Performance at Windsor Castle
  • Éduoard as Enrico in Lohengrin
  • Jean as Lohengrin in Lohengrin
• 16 July 1900 — Command Performance at Windsor Castle
  • Éduoard as Mefistofele in Faust