Victor Capoul
Encyclopedia
Joseph Victor Amédée Capoul, born in Toulouse
on 27 February 1839 and died in Pujaudran
on 18 February 1924, was a French operatic tenor
with a lyric voice and a graceful singing style.
in 1859, where, as a pupil of Révial (singing) and Mocker (opéra comique
), he won a first prize for the latter attainment in 1861.
He was engaged at the Opéra-Comique
the same year and made his debut on 26 August as Daniel in Adolphe Adam
's Le Chalet. He sang other roles in the repertoire such as in La fille du régiment
, La part du diable
, La dame blanche
, Le Pré aux clercs
and L'étoile du nord
, until leaving in 1870. He also created the roles of Renaud in Lefébure-Wély
's 1861 opera Les Recruteurs, Eustache in Les Absents by Ferdinand Poise on 26 October 1864, Horace in the 2-act version of Gounod
's opera La colombe
on 7 June 1866, Le Marquis de Kerdrel in La grand'tante
on 3 April 1867, Gaston de Maillepré in Le premier jour de bonheur
on 15 February 1868, and Valentin/Vert-Vert in Offenbach
's opéra comique Vert-Vert on 10 March 1869.
On 1 July 1864, during a temporary closure of the Salle Favart, Capoul appeared with Balbi in The Barber of Seville
at the Théâtre Porte-Saint-Martin. He took part in the performance of the prize cantata at the Conservatoire Renaud dans les jardins d'Armide, words by Camille du Locle
, music by Charles Lenepveu on 4 January 1866.
In 1866 he was involved in a dispute between the Opéra-Comique and the Théâtre Lyrique
, which was attempting to engage him —both for his voice and his looks— as Roméo in the premiere of Gounod's opera Roméo et Juliette
, the part eventually going to Michot. In the same year he saw success in the title role of Joseph
at the Salle Favart.
He was invited to London for a season in 1871 by Mapleson
, appearing in Faust
at Drury Lane
and returned again until 1875; later from 1877 he was seen in Fra Diavolo
at Covent Garden
(which he had first sung at the Opéra-Comique in 1870), followed by Almaviva
, Ernesto
and Elvino
.
After several tours around Europe, to Saint Petersburg
, Moscow and Vienna
, he returned to Paris, and appeared in the premieres of Les amants de Vérone at the Théâtre Ventadour, Paul et Virginie, at the Gaité ; Saïs at the Théâtre de la Renaissance
and Jocelyn
at the Château d'Eau.
He took part in the concert given at the Trocadero on 8 June 1887, for a benefit for the victims of the recent fire at the Opéra-Comique.
In the USA, he made his debut at the Academy of Music in 1871. Later, he appeared in the first season, that of 1883–84, at the New York Metropolitan Opera
as Faust
, Wilhelm Meister
, Alfredo
and Tybalt
.
He collaborated on the libretto
of Jocelyn, by Godard
(première 25 February 1888 at La Monnaie
, Brussels), and sang in the Paris premiere at the Théâtre du Chàteau-d'Eau on 13 October 1888. His one known recording is of an aria from this opera. It was made in Paris in 1905 for the Fonotipia Company and shows a voice past its prime. By this time Capoul was almost stone deaf. According to Scott however (Record of Singing: 1978) the mid 19th century style remains.
In 1899, Pedro Gailhard recruited him to become artistic director of the Opéra de Paris, of which establishment Gailhard was director. Capoul's later life was clouded by financial and other difficulties, however, and he died in reduced circumstances.
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
on 27 February 1839 and died in Pujaudran
Pujaudran
Pujaudran is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
on 18 February 1924, was a French operatic 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...
with a lyric voice and a graceful singing style.
Career
Victor Capoul began his studies in Toulouse. He was admitted to the Conservatoire de ParisConservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...
in 1859, where, as a pupil of Révial (singing) and Mocker (opéra comique
Opéra comique
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
), he won a first prize for the latter attainment in 1861.
He was engaged at the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-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...
the same year and made his debut on 26 August as Daniel in Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle and Le corsaire , his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau , Le toréador and Si j'étais roi , and his Christmas...
's Le Chalet. He sang other roles in the repertoire such as in La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. It was written while the composer was living in Paris, with a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.La figlia del reggimento, a slightly different Italian-language version , was...
, La part du diable
La part du diable
La part du diable is an opéra comique by Daniel Auber to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, loosely based on an incident from the life of the singer Farinelli. It premiered at the Opéra-Comique on 16 January 1843...
, La dame blanche
La Dame blanche
La dame blanche is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and is based on episodes from no less than five of the works by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, including his novels The Monastery, Guy Mannering, and The...
, Le Pré aux clercs
Le Pré aux clercs
Le pré aux clercs is an opéra comique in three acts by Ferdinand Hérold with a libretto by François-Antoine-Eugène de Planard based on Prosper Mérimée's Chronique du temps de Charles IX of 1829.-Performance history:...
and 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....
, until leaving in 1870. He also created the roles of Renaud in Lefébure-Wély
Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wely
Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wely was a French organist and composer.-Short Biography:Lefébure-Wely played a major role in the development of the French symphonic organ style and was a close friend of the organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, inaugurating many new Cavaillé-Coll organs.He began to...
's 1861 opera Les Recruteurs, Eustache in Les Absents by Ferdinand Poise on 26 October 1864, Horace in the 2-act version 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 opera La colombe
La colombe
La Colombe is an opéra comique in two acts by Charles Gounod with a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré based, like Philémon et Baucis, on a poem of Jean de la Fontaine, in this case Le Faucon...
on 7 June 1866, Le Marquis de Kerdrel in La grand'tante
La grand'tante
La grand'tante is an opera in one act by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jules Adenis and Charles Grandvallet. It was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on April 3, 1867...
on 3 April 1867, Gaston de Maillepré in Le premier jour de bonheur
Le premier jour de bonheur
Le premier jour de bonheur is an opera or opéra comique in 3 acts by composer Daniel Auber. The French language libretto by Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon is based on Joseph François Souque's Le chevalier de Canolle...
on 15 February 1868, and Valentin/Vert-Vert in Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's opéra comique Vert-Vert on 10 March 1869.
On 1 July 1864, during a temporary closure of the Salle Favart, Capoul appeared with Balbi 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...
at the Théâtre Porte-Saint-Martin. He took part in the performance of the prize cantata at the Conservatoire Renaud dans les jardins d'Armide, words by Camille du Locle
Camille du Locle
Camille du Locle was a French theatre director and a librettist. He was born in Orange, France. From 1862 he served as assistant to his father-in-law, Émile Perrin at the Paris Opéra, moving in 1870 to the Opéra-Comique....
, music by Charles Lenepveu on 4 January 1866.
In 1866 he was involved in a dispute between the Opéra-Comique and the Théâtre Lyrique
Théâtre Lyrique
The Théâtre Lyrique was one of four opera companies performing in Paris during the middle of the 19th century . The company was founded in 1847 as the Opéra-National by the French composer Adolphe Adam and renamed Théâtre Lyrique in 1852...
, which was attempting to engage him —both for his voice and his looks— as Roméo in the premiere of Gounod's opera 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...
, the part eventually going to Michot. In the same year he saw success in the title role of Joseph
Joseph (opera)
Joseph is an opera in three acts by the French composer Étienne Méhul. The libretto, by Alexandre Duval, is based on the Biblical story of Joseph and his brothers. The work was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 17 February 1807 at the Théâtre Feydeau...
at the Salle Favart.
He was invited to London for a season in 1871 by Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson was an English opera impresario, probably the leading figure instrumental in the development of opera production, and of the careers of singers, in London and New York City in the second half of the 19th century.-Life and career:Mapleson was born in London, England...
, appearing 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...
at Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
and returned again until 1875; later from 1877 he was seen in Fra Diavolo
Fra Diavolo
Fra Diavolo , is the popular name given to Michele Pezza, a famous Neapolitan guerrilla leader who resisted the French occupation of Naples, proving an “inspirational practicioner of popular insurrection”. Pezza figures prominently in folk lore and fiction...
at Covent Garden
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...
(which he had first sung at the Opéra-Comique in 1870), followed by Almaviva
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...
, Ernesto
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
and Elvino
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...
.
After several tours around Europe, to Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, Moscow and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, he returned to Paris, and appeared in the premieres of Les amants de Vérone at the Théâtre Ventadour, Paul et Virginie, at the Gaité ; Saïs at the Théâtre de la Renaissance
Théâtre de la Renaissance
The name Théâtre de la Renaissance has been used successively for three distinct Parisian theatre companies. The first two companies, which were short-lived enterprises in the 19th century, used the Salle Ventadour, now an office building on the Rue Méhul in the 2nd arrondissement.The current...
and Jocelyn
Jocelyn (opera)
Jocelyn is a four-act opera by Benjamin Godard, set to a French libretto by Paul Armand Silvestre and the famous tenor Victor Capoul. Taken from the poem by Alphonse de Lamartine, the action takes place in Grenoble and the surrounding mountains during Corpus Christi at the close of the 18th century...
at the Château d'Eau.
He took part in the concert given at the Trocadero on 8 June 1887, for a benefit for the victims of the recent fire at the Opéra-Comique.
In the USA, he made his debut at the Academy of Music in 1871. Later, he appeared in the first season, that of 1883–84, at the New York 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...
as 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...
, Wilhelm Meister
Mignon
Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
, Alfredo
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
and Tybalt
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...
.
He collaborated on the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
of Jocelyn, by Godard
Benjamin Godard
Benjamin Louis Paul Godard was a French violinist and Romantic composer.-Biography:Born in Paris, Godard was a student of Henri Vieuxtemps. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1863 where he studied under Vieuxtemps and Napoléon Henri Reber and accompanied Vieuxtemps twice to Germany...
(première 25 February 1888 at La Monnaie
La Monnaie
Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....
, Brussels), and sang in the Paris premiere at the Théâtre du Chàteau-d'Eau on 13 October 1888. His one known recording is of an aria from this opera. It was made in Paris in 1905 for the Fonotipia Company and shows a voice past its prime. By this time Capoul was almost stone deaf. According to Scott however (Record of Singing: 1978) the mid 19th century style remains.
In 1899, Pedro Gailhard recruited him to become artistic director of the Opéra de Paris, of which establishment Gailhard was director. Capoul's later life was clouded by financial and other difficulties, however, and he died in reduced circumstances.