Gustave Huberdeau
Encyclopedia
Gustave Huberdeau was a French operatic
bass-baritone
who had a prolific career in Europe and the United States during the first quarter of the twentieth century. He sang a wide repertoire encompassing material from French composers like Gounod and Massenet to the Italian grand operas
of Verdi, the verismo
operas of Mascagni, and the German operas of Richard Wagner
and Richard Strauss
. He sang in numerous premieres during his 30 year career, including the original production of Puccini's La rondine
in 1917. Although possessing a rich and warm voice, Huberdeau had a talent for comedic portrayals which made him a favorite casting choice in secondary comedic roles as well as leading roles. After retiring from opera in 1927, Huberdeau remained active as a performer in stage plays and in French cinema throughout the 1930s.
in 1898. He sang in smaller roles with that theater over the next ten years, which included a number of secondary roles in premières such as Charpentier
's Louise
(1900), Camille Erlanger
's Le Juif polonais
, Massenet’s Grisélidis
(1901), Reynaldo Hahn
's La Carmélite (1902), Henri Rabaud
's La fille de Roland (1904), and Guillaume in André Messager
's Fortunio
(1907). In 1908 he joined the roster of Oscar Hammerstein I
's Manhattan Opera Company
in New York City where he periodically sang leading roles over the next three years. He notably portrayed the Devil in the American première of Grisélidis and sang Orestes in the American première of Elektra
(1910). However, Hammerstein employed Huberdeau more frequently in productions with the Philadelphia Opera Company
with which he was highly active between 1909 and 1910.
In 1911 Huberdeau became a member of the Chicago Grand Opera Company
, remaining with that company until it closed in 1914. He appeared in several notable productions with the company including the American premiere of Wilhelm Kienzl
's Der Kuhreigen
and the world premiere of Victor Herbert
's Natoma. In 1914 he debuted at England's Royal Opera
as a visiting artist, where he sang Méphistophélès from Gounod's Faust
. That same year he returned to France and served in the First World War in the French army.
After being honorably discharged in 1917, Huberdeau joined the Chicago Opera Association
where he sang leading roles until 1920. He notably sang in the world premiere of Sylvio Lazzari
's Le Sautériot (1918), the American premiere of Henry Février
's Gismonda
, and the world premiere of Roger De Koven's Rip Van Winkle (1920). In 1917 Huberdeau sang the role of Rambaldo Fernandez in the original production of Puccini's La rondine
with Opéra de Monte-Carlo
. In 1919–1920 he sang with the Beecham Opera in London where he appeared as Méphistophélès, Le Comte des Grieux in Massenet's Manon
, Ramfis in Verdi's Aida
, and Colline in La Bohème
. He also periodically returned to Covent Garden
appearing as Arkel and the Father in the British première of Mascagni’s Iris
(1919) among other roles.
In 1921 Huberdeau returned to France where he continued to sing throughout the 1920s in such cities as Paris, Nice, Monte Carlo
, Vichy
, and Brussels
. He sang a wide repertory, which included everything from lead roles to character roles to mute roles. In 1922 he sang in the world premiere of Massenet's Amadis
. In 1924 he left France for one year to perform in a number of productions in Amsterdam
which included Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen
and Golaud in the Dutch premiere of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande
. In 1927, Huberdeau sang his last season in Monte Carlo, which included a portrayal of Hunding in Wagner's Die Walküre
.
(1931), Mistigri (1931), La Dame de chez Maxim's (1932), Prisonnier de mon coeur (1932), Georges et Georgette (1933), Les Nuits moscovites (1934), Tarass Boulba (1936), and À Venise, une nuit (1937). With the outbreak of World War II, Huberdeau's acting career ended. He died in Paris in 1945.
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...
bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
who had a prolific career in Europe and the United States during the first quarter of the twentieth century. He sang a wide repertoire encompassing material from French composers like Gounod and Massenet to the Italian grand operas
Italian opera
Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...
of Verdi, the verismo
Verismo
Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....
operas of Mascagni, and the German operas of Richard 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...
and Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
. He sang in numerous premieres during his 30 year career, including the original production of Puccini's La rondine
La rondine
La rondine is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
in 1917. Although possessing a rich and warm voice, Huberdeau had a talent for comedic portrayals which made him a favorite casting choice in secondary comedic roles as well as leading roles. After retiring from opera in 1927, Huberdeau remained active as a performer in stage plays and in French cinema throughout the 1930s.
Opera career
Huberdeau was born in Paris, studied at the Paris Conservatoire and then made his professional opera début at the Opéra-ComiqueOpéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
in 1898. He sang in smaller roles with that theater over the next ten years, which included a number of secondary roles in premières such as Charpentier
Charpentier
Charpentier is the French word for carpenter and a French surname. A variant spelling is Carpentier. In English the name is spelled Carpenter while in German it is Zimmermann....
's Louise
Louise (opera)
Louise is an opera in four acts by Gustave Charpentier to an original French libretto by the composer, with some contributions by Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and inspiration of the surrealists....
(1900), Camille Erlanger
Camille Erlanger
Camille Erlanger was a Parisian-born French opera composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Léo Delibes and Émile Durand, and in 1888 won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Velléda...
's Le Juif polonais
Le Juif polonais
Le Juif Polonais is an opera in three acts by Camille Erlanger composed to a libretto by Henri Cain. The libretto was adapted from the 1867 play of the same name by Erckmann-Chatrian...
, Massenet’s Grisélidis
Grisélidis
Grisélidis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Armand Silvestre and Eugène Morand. It is based on the play by the same authors first performed at the Comédie-Française on 15 May 1891, which is drawn from the medieval tale of 'patient Grissil'...
(1901), Reynaldo Hahn
Reynaldo Hahn
Reynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic and diarist. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie....
's La Carmélite (1902), Henri Rabaud
Henri Rabaud
Henri Rabaud was a French conductor and composer, who held important posts in the French musical establishment and upheld mainly conservative trends in French music in the first half of the twentieth century....
's La fille de Roland (1904), and Guillaume in André Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
's Fortunio
Fortunio (opera)
Fortunio comédie lyrique or opera in 4 Acts and 5 tableaux by composer André Messager. The French language libretto by Gaston Arman de Caillavet and Robert de Flers is based on Alfred de Musset's comedy Le Chandelier. A stage work in the opéra comique tradition, the opera contains some spoken...
(1907). In 1908 he joined the roster of Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America...
's Manhattan Opera Company
Manhattan Opera Company
The Manhattan Opera Company was an opera company based in New York City. Active from 1906 until 1910, it was founded by Oscar Hammerstein I.The company began operations in 1906 at the Manhattan Opera House on 34th Street in New York City...
in New York City where he periodically sang leading roles over the next three years. He notably portrayed the Devil in the American première of Grisélidis and sang Orestes in the American première of Elektra
Elektra (opera)
Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal...
(1910). However, Hammerstein employed Huberdeau more frequently in productions with the Philadelphia Opera Company
Philadelphia Opera Company
The Philadelphia Opera Company was the name of two different American opera companies active during the twentieth century in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first company was founded by impresario Oscar Hammerstein I in 1908. That company disbanded only two years later as a result of financial...
with which he was highly active between 1909 and 1910.
In 1911 Huberdeau became a member of the Chicago Grand Opera Company
Chicago Grand Opera Company
Two grand opera companies in Chicago have gone by the name Chicago Grand Opera CompanyThe first Chicago Grand Opera Company produced four seasons of opera in Chicago’s Auditorium Theater from the Fall of 1910 through November 1915. It was the first resident Chicago opera company...
, remaining with that company until it closed in 1914. He appeared in several notable productions with the company including the American premiere of Wilhelm Kienzl
Wilhelm Kienzl
Wilhelm Kienzl was an Austrian composer.-Biography:Kienzl was born in the small, picturesque Upper Austrian town of Waizenkirchen. His family moved to the Styrian capital of Graz in 1860, where he studied the violin under Ignaz Uhl, piano under Johann Buwa, and composition from 1872 under the...
's Der Kuhreigen
Der Kuhreigen
Der Kuhreigen is an opera in three acts by the Austrian composer Wilhelm Kienzl. The libretto, by Richard Batka, is after Rudolf Hans Bartsch's novel Die kleine Blanchefleur...
and the world premiere of Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
's Natoma. In 1914 he debuted at England's Royal Opera
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...
as a visiting artist, where he sang Méphistophélès from Gounod'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...
. That same year he returned to France and served in the First World War in the French army.
After being honorably discharged in 1917, Huberdeau joined the Chicago Opera Association
Chicago Opera Association
The Chicago Opera Association was a company that produced seven seasons of grand opera in Chicago’s Auditorium Theater from 1915 to 1921. The founding artistic director and principal conductor was Cleofonte Campanini, while the general manager and chief underwriter was Harold F. McCormick...
where he sang leading roles until 1920. He notably sang in the world premiere of Sylvio Lazzari
Sylvio Lazzari
Sylvio Lazzari was a French composer of Austrian origin.-Life:...
's Le Sautériot (1918), the American premiere of Henry Février
Henry Février
Henry Février was a French composer.-Biography:Henry Février studied at the Paris Conservatoire where his teachers included Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré. He also took private lessons with André Messager...
's Gismonda
Gismonda
Gismonda is Greek melodrama in four acts by Victorien Sardou that premiered in 1894 at Renaissance Theatre. Later it would be adapted into the opera Gismonda by Henry Février.-Plot:Act I starts in 1450 in Athens at the foot of the Acropolis....
, and the world premiere of Roger De Koven's Rip Van Winkle (1920). In 1917 Huberdeau sang the role of Rambaldo Fernandez in the original production of Puccini's La rondine
La rondine
La rondine is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
with Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Opéra de Monte-Carlo
The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is an opera house located in the principality of Monaco.With the lack of cultural diversions available in Monaco in the 1870s, Prince Charles III, along with the Société des Bains de Mer, decided on the construction of an opera house. Initially, it was Charles III's...
. In 1919–1920 he sang with the Beecham Opera in London where he appeared as Méphistophélès, Le Comte des Grieux in Massenet's Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, Ramfis in Verdi's 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...
, and Colline in La Bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. He also periodically returned to Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
appearing as Arkel and the Father in the British première of Mascagni’s Iris
Iris (opera)
Iris is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni to an original Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. Its first performance was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 22 November 1898.The opera is through-composed and set in Japan during legendary times...
(1919) among other roles.
In 1921 Huberdeau returned to France where he continued to sing throughout the 1920s in such cities as Paris, Nice, Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
, Vichy
Vichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
, and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. He sang a wide repertory, which included everything from lead roles to character roles to mute roles. In 1922 he sang in the world premiere of Massenet's Amadis
Amadis (Massenet)
Amadis is an opera in three acts with prologue by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jules Claretie based on the Spanish knight-errantry romance Amadis de Gaula, originally of Portuguese origin, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo....
. In 1924 he left France for one year to perform in a number of productions in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
which included Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
and Golaud in the Dutch premiere of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...
. In 1927, Huberdeau sang his last season in Monte Carlo, which included a portrayal of Hunding in Wagner's Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
.
Film and stage career
After his opera career ended, Huberdeau continued to perform as an actor on the stage in spoken plays and in French films. His first film role was in the 1931 movie Ronny. His other film appearances include Boule de gomme (1931), Le MillionLe Million
Le Million is a 1931 French musical comedy film directed by René Clair. The story was adapted by Clair from a play by Georges Berr and Marcel Guillemand.-Plot:...
(1931), Mistigri (1931), La Dame de chez Maxim's (1932), Prisonnier de mon coeur (1932), Georges et Georgette (1933), Les Nuits moscovites (1934), Tarass Boulba (1936), and À Venise, une nuit (1937). With the outbreak of World War II, Huberdeau's acting career ended. He died in Paris in 1945.
Recordings
Huberdeau was among the first generation of musicians to be recorded. He recorded only a few arias around 1910 on Edison cylinder. His recordings show a sturdy voice that is somewhat dry in quality given the limited technology of day.Sources
- J.B. Steane: "Gustave Huberdeau", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 9 November 2008), (subscription access)
- Gustave Huberdeau biography from Operissimo.com (In German)
External links
- "Artists in the War", New York Times article of 19 September 1914 mistakenly reporting Huberdeau's death on the World War I battlefields along with two other French opera singers Léon RothierLéon RothierLéon Rothier was a French musician, predominantly an opera singer in the bass range, who reached the peak of his powers in the early 20th century at New York's Metropolitan Opera....
and Armand CrabbéArmand CrabbéArmand Crabbé was a Belgian operatic baritone. In 1904 he made his professional opera debut at La Monnaie as the Nightwatchman in Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He was a leading performer at the Royal Opera House in London from 1906-1914 and again in 1937...
. All of them had in fact survived. Rotheir died in 1951 and Crabbé in 1947.