Léon Escalais

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Léon Escalais (August 8, 1859, Cuxac-d'Aude - November 8, 1941, Paris) was a French tenor, particularly associated with French and Italian heroic roles, legendary for the ease and brilliance of his upper register.

[edit] Life and career

Born Léonce Antoine Escalais, he studied at Music Conservatory of Toulouse, and later Paris, with Crosti and Obin. He made his professional debut at the Théâtre du Château (Paris) in 1882, in Sardanapale by Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy.

His debut at the Palais Garnier took place in 1883, as Arnold in Guillaume Tell, other roles there included: Eléazar in La Juive, Robert in Robert le diable, Raoul in Les Huguenots, Vasco in L'Africaine, etc. He made his debut at La Monnaie in 1885, and at La Scala in 1888, adding to his repertory Manrico in Il trovatore, and Radames in Aida. He also appeared in New Orleans.

Escalais retired from the stage in 1912, and began giving private voice lessons, one of his student was José Luccioni.

Despite his many successes, Escalais was somewhat handicapped by his small stature on stage, which was often at odd with the heroic characters he was singing.

[edit] Sources

• Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition), Guide de l’opéra, Les indispensables de la musique (Fayard, 1995). ISBN 2-213-01563-6