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Jean-Paul Fouchécourt

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2015

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt is a French tenor, mostly as an opera singer. He was born on 30 August 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.

Life and career

Specialist in French Baroque repertory, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt has gained his international reputation with his portrayal of the title role Platée by Rameau, Arnalta in l’Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi, the four 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.

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 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 Minkowski and his Musiciens du Louvre: highlights of his 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. He has also collaborated with other Baroque ensembles directed by R. Alessandrini, H. Bicket, R. Brown, P. Herreweghe, G. Garrido, N. McGeggan, R. Jacobs, S. Kuijken, H. Niquet, T. Pinnock, Ch. Rousset and JC. Spinosi.

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt has performed with many of the world’s leading opera companies, including Royal Opera House - London, Metropolitan Opera, City Opera - New York, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Bastille, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Opéra de Bordeaux, Opéra de Lyon, Opéra du Rhin, and Opéra 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 Saito Kinen Orchestra, Boston Symphony, National Orchestra of France, Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, Berlin Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic under the conductors as Frans Brüggen, Myung-Whun Chung, J. Conlon, Sir A. Davis, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Yannick Neguet-Seguin, James. Levine, J. Lopez-Cobos, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, A. Pappano, Michel Plasson, Sir Simon Rattle....

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt has also performed at 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), and 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 100 recordings includes works from Monteverdi, Mondonville, Rameau, Fauré, Bizet, Boulanger, Delage, Poulenc, Offenbach, Ravel, 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 became the Artistic Director of the Studio de l’Opéra de Lyon (SOL) in 2011.

Selected recordings

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Jennifer Larmore, Philippe Bach.

Solo recitals

Among the many Baroque operas and vocal pieces that Fouchécourt has recorded are:

Other recordings include:

Carmen by Bizet, conducted by Antonio Pappano (2004) DVD Carmen by Bizet, conducted by Simon Rattle EMI (2012) Eugène Onguin byTchaikowsky conducted by Valery Gergiev (2007) DECA DVD

Saxophone

  • Works by Creston, Pierné, Schmitt recorded in 1981, 1984.
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