Jean-Paul Fouchécourt
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Jean-Paul Fouchécourt is a French tenor, mostly as an opera singer. He was born on August 30, 1958, at Blanzy in the Burgundy region. He is best known for singing French Baroque music, especially the parts called in French haute-contre, written for a very high tenor voice with no falsetto singing.
Specialist in French Baroque repertory, Jean-Paul Fouchecourt has gained his international reputation with his portrayal of the title role Platée by Rameau, Arnalta in l’Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi, the 4 servants in the Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach and le Mari in the Mamelles de Tirésias by Poulenc. He combines excellent musicality with a strong stage presence and is constantly sought after by casting directors for many of opera's character tenor roles.
After studying the classical saxophone and conducting, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt decided to become a singer after a workshop with Cathy Berberian in 1982. He began his career with Les Arts Florissants directed by William Christie and joined this ensemble in 1986, having concerts in Europe, US, Soviet Union, South America, Australia and Japan. Jean-Paul Fouchécourt then went on to work extensively with the conductor Marc Minkowsky and his Musiciens du Louvre: highlights of his young career in the Baroque repertory include the title roles of Hippolyte et Aricie by Rameau, Titon et l’Aurore by Mondonville, Acis et Galatée by Lully and Resurrezione by Handel. Jean-Paul has also collaborated with other Baroque ensembles directed by R. Alessandrini, R. Brown, P. Herreweghe, G. Garrido, N. McGeggan, R. Jacobs, S. Kuijken, H. Niquet, T. Pinnock, and Ch. Rousset.
Jean-Paul Fouchecourt has performed with many of the world’s leading opera companies, including Royal Opera House - London, Metropolitan Opera, City Opera - New York, and Cincinnati Opera. Opera Bastille, Theatre des Champs Elysees, and Châtelet in Paris, Opera de Bordeaux, Opera de Lyon, Opera du Rhin, and Opera de Montpellier. Théâtre de la Monnaie, Vlaams Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Lausanne Opera and Zurich opera. Netherlands Opera, Theater an der Wien, New Israeli Opera and Australian Opera…
His operatic productions have included l’enfant et les sortilèges and l’Heure Espagnole (Torquemada) by Ravel, le Nozze di Figaro (Basilio) by Mozart, Orphée aux Enfers by Offenbach, Falstaff (Bardolfo) by Verdi, Manon (Guillot de Morfontaine) by Massenet, Madame Butterfly (Goro) by Puccini, Eugene Onegin (Monsieur Triquet) by Tchaikovsky, l’étoile (Ouf 1er) by Chabrier, Calisto by Cavalli, and The golden cockerel (The astrologer) by Rimsky-Korsakov.
His orchestral engagements have include invitations from the Saito Kinen Orchestra, Boston Symphony, National Orchestra of France, Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, Berlin Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra, where he has built very strong relationships working with conductors such as F. Bruggen, M.M Chung, J. Conlon, Sir A. Davis, C. Dutoit, Sir JE. Gardiner, V. Gergiev, N. Harnoncourt, V. Jurowsky, J. Levine, J. Lopez-Cobos, K. Nagano, S. Ozawa, A. Pappano, M. Plasson, Sir S. Rattle, G. Rozhdestvensky.
Jean-Paul Fouchecourt is also a regular feature of many of the world’s leading music festivals including Aix en Provence, Choregies d’Orange (France), Berkley (USA), Saito Kinen (Japan), BBC Proms, Edinburgh (UK), Salzburg (Austria).
He has a great affinity and love of French songs, from the Baroque Air de cour and Classical Romance to the Romantic mélodie. He has performed recitals in France and around the world including Warsaw, Abu Dhabi, Moscow, Caracas, San Francisco, Tokyo, New York (Florence Gould Hall with Dalton Baldwin, and London (Wigmore Hall with Graham Johnson).
His discography of more than 90 recordings includes works from Mondonville, Rameau, Fauré, Boulanger, Poulenc and Rosenthal to Szymanowski.
In 2000, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt was honoured with the distinction of “Chevalier de l’ordre National du Mérite” by the French Government.
He will appear in a Rameau's Platée to be directed by Laurent Pelly (revival on his Opéra de Paris production in 1999) and conducted by Harry Bicket for the Santa Fe Opera's 2007 summer festival.
[edit] Selected recordings
Among the many Baroque operas and vocal pieces that Fouchécourt has recorded are:
- Atys by Jean-Baptist Lully, conducted by William Christie (1987) Harmonia Mundi
- David et Jonathas by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, conducted by William Christie (1988) Harmonia Mundi
- The Fairy-Queen by Purcell, conducted by William Christie (1989) Harmonia Mundi
- Alcyone by Marin Marais, conducted by Marc Minkowski (1990) Erato
- Te Deum by De Lalande, conducted by William Christie (1991) Harmonia Mundi
- Titon et l'Aurore by Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, conducted by Marc Minkowski (1992) Erato
- Les amours de Ragonde by Jean-Joseph Mouret, conducted by Marc Minkowski (1992) Erato
- Les Indes Galantes by Jean-Philippe Rameau, conducted by William Christie (1992) Harmonia Mundi
- Idoménée by André Campra, conducted by William Christie (1992) Harmonia Mundi
- Te Deum by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, conducted by William Christie (1992) Harmonia Mundi
- Pigmalion by Rameau, conducted by Hervé Niquet (1993) Fnac / re-release from Virgin Classics/EMI (1999)
- Phaëton by Lully, conducted by Marc Minkowski (1993) Erato
- Hippolyte et Aricie by Rameau, conducted by Marc Minkowski (1994) Archiv
- Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, conducted by William Christie (1995) Erato
- Les Fêtes de Paphos by Mondonville, conducted by Christophe Rousset (1997) L'Oiseau-Lyre
- Les Fêtes d'Hébé by Rameau, conducted by William Christie (1998) Erato
- Acis & Galatée by Lully, conducted by Marc Minkowski (1998) Archiv
- Orphée et Euridice (1774 Paris version) by Gluck, conducted by Ryan Brown (2005) Naxos
Other recordings include:
- La Camiale di Matrimonio by Gioachino Rossini, conducted by Hervé Niquet (1991) ADDA
- La dame blanche by Boïeldieu, conducted by Marc Minkowski (1996, Released 1997, US Release 2001) EMI Classics/Angel
- Les mamelles de Tirésias by Francis Poulenc, conducted by Seiji Ozawa (1999) Philips
- Orphée aux enfers by Offenbach conducted by Marc Minkowski (1998) EMI
- Roméo & Juliette by Berlioz, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (1998) Polygram
- Werther by Massenet, conducted by Antonio Pappano (1999) EMI Classics
