Gilbert Duprez

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Gilbert Duprez (6 December 1806 – 23 September 1896) was a French tenor.

Gilbert-Louis Duprez was born and initially studied in Paris, where he made his operatic début at the Odéon in 1825 as Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini.

He went to Italy where he sang and engaged in further study. In 1831 he created a sensation in the Italian premiere of Rossini's Guillaume Tell by singing a high C with his full chest voice. In Florence he was Ugo in the première of Donizetti's Parisina in 1833. In 1835 he was the first to perform the role of Edgardo in the same composer's Lucia di Lammermoor.

Back in Paris, Duprez sang the title role in the première of Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini in 1838. For Donizetti, he sang the roles of Fernand and Polyeucte in the premières of La favorite and Les martyrs, respectively, in 1840, and the title role in the first performance of his last opera, Dom Sébastien, in 1843.