Rose Caron

Rose Caron in the role of Salammbo, by Léon Bonnat

Rose Caron (17 November 1857 – 9 April 1930) was a French operatic soprano.[1]

Rose Caron was born at Monnerville (Mondeville, Essonne). She studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was not taken on at the Paris Opera; her husband, an accompanist, encouraged her to take lessons from Marie Sasse who helped her to get engagements at the opera in Brussels (having made her concert debut in 1880).[2]

Caron’s first operatic appearance in Brussels was as Alice in Robert le Diable, followed by Salomé in Hérodiade and Marguérite in Faust; noticed by Ernest Reyer, he chose her to create the role of Brunehild in Sigurd in 1884 (and the Paris premiere in 1885). The title role in Salammbo in 1890 was also created by Caron.

Her repertoire included several Wagnerian roles, Rachel in La Juive and Valentine in Les Huguenots.

At the Opéra-Comique she sang Léonore in Fidelio in 1898, Iphigénie en Tauride and Orphée (Gluck).[3]

Caron sang in the first performance of Debussy's L'enfant prodigue in Paris on 27 July 1884.[4]

Caron sang a few times at the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire in December 1885/January 1886 (Airs from Der Freischütz by Weber and La vestale by Spontini), at the official concert of the Exposition Universelle on 20 June 1889 (Psyché by Thomas (fragments) and excerpts from Sigurd), and in March 1895 (scenes from Alceste by Gluck).[5]

After 1895 she reduced her public appearances considerably and concentrated on teaching at the Paris Conservatoire (1904–09) and then private tuition. One of her pupils was soprano Alice Zeppilli. She left a few recordings dating from 1903 and 1904, for French Fonotipia, that were recorded poorly, and show her past her prime. She died in Paris.

Gallery

Notes

  1. ↑ Steane JB. Rose Caron, in New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.
  2. ↑ Gourret J. Dictionnaire des cantatrices de l'Opera de Paris. Editions Albatros, Paris, 1987.
  3. ↑ Wolff S. Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900-1950). André Bonne, Paris, 1953.
  4. ↑ Noel, Édouard, Stoullig, Edmond. Les Annales du Théâtre et de la Musique, dixième année, 1884. G. Charpentier, Paris, 1885, p.377.
  5. ↑ Kern Holoman D. Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. http://hector.ucdavis.edu/Sdc/MainRoll/D.htm. Accessed 2.06.09.