Marcelle Demougeot
{{short description|Singer from France}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marcelle Demougeot
| image = Marcelle Demougeot (Parsifal).png
| alt = A white woman, standing, hand on forehead, wearing a gown and headdress typical of 1900s Wagnerian opera.
| caption = Marcelle Demougeot as Brünnhilde
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| birth_date = 8 June 1876
| birth_place = Dijon
| death_date = 23 November 1931
| death_place = Sainte-Maxime
| occupation = Opera singer (soprano)
| years_active =
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}}
Marcelle Demougeot (8 June 1876 – 23 November 1931), born Jeanne Marguerite Marcelle Decorne, was a French soprano, "the best-known French Wagnerian singer of her generation".{{Cite web|last=Cummings|first=David|title=Demougeot, Marcelle|url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000901219|access-date=2020-08-13|website=Grove Music Online|year=2002|language=en|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.o901219|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 }}
Early life
Jeanne Marguerite Marcelle Decorne was born in Dijon,{{Cite web|title=Marcelle Demougeot (1876-1931)|url=https://data.bnf.fr/fr/14846944/marcelle_demougeot/|access-date=2020-08-13|website=BnF Data}} where she studied with Charles Laurent. She trained further as a singer at the Conservatoire de Paris.{{Cite journal|last=Aspertini|date=April 1908|title=Grand Théatre Municipale de Dijon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LJhRAQAAMAAJ&q=Marcelle+Demougeot&pg=PA247|journal=Le Théatre|pages=18–20}}
Career
Demougeot made her professional debut in 1902, as Donna Elvira in Paris. She was known for singing Wagnerian roles including Brünnhilde and Kundry. She sang in several premiere productions, including Le fils de l’étoile (1904) by Camille Erlanger, Ariane (1906) by Massenet, a French-language production of Das Rheingold (1909) by Wagner, Déjanire, (1911) by Camille Saint-Saëns, and the Paris premiere of Parsifal (1914).{{Cite news|date=1914-01-11|title=Opera Singers in a Clash|pages=11|work=Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/57257996/opera-singers-in-a-clash/|access-date=2020-08-13|via=Newspapers.com}} She made several recordings before 1910.{{Cite book|last=Kelly|first=Alan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qO9D5E8ccVEC&q=Marcelle+Demougeot&pg=PA410|title=His Master's Voice: The French Catalogue : a Complete Numerical Catalogue of French Gramophone Recordings Made from 1898 to 1929 in France and Elsewhere by the Gramophone Company Ltd.|date=1990|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-27333-9|pages=410|language=en}}
In 1916, Demougeot sang at a benefit for blind veterans in Vichy.{{Cite journal|last=de Valdor|first=Joseph|date=August 25, 1916|title=Music Abroad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5HtFAQAAMAAJ&q=Marcelle+Demougeot&pg=RA3-PA26|journal=Music News|volume=8|pages=26}} She sang La Marseillaise outside the Palais Garnier to mark the signing of peace at the end of World War I, and later sang at a victory festival in Ostend.{{Cite news|date=1919-10-12|title=Plays and Players|pages=19|work=The Nebraska State Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/57257853/plays-and-players/|access-date=2020-08-13|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1919 she sang at the official Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.{{Cite journal|date=August 21, 1919|title=Music Plays Big Part in Paris Bastille Day Celebration|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7SIqQHZL2_wC&q=Demougeot+Marseillaise&pg=RA7-PA7|journal=Musical Courier|volume=79|pages=7}} In 1924 she sang during festivities surrounding the Summer Olympics in Paris.{{Cite book|last=Nectoux|first=Jean-Michel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YEo5jwtbnC4C&q=Marcelle+Demougeot&pg=PA428|title=Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life|date=2004-12-16|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-61695-9|pages=428|language=en}}
Personal life
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- Arakelyan, Ashot. [http://forgottenoperasingers.blogspot.com/2014/06/marcelle-demougeot-soprano-dijon-1876.html "Marcelle Demougeot (Soprano) (Dijon 1876 - Paris 1931)"] Forgotten Opera Singers (June 6, 2014). A blogpost with images and links.
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN2bsaFKMkA A 1904 recording of Demougeot] and tenor Agustarello Affre singing a duet from Les Huguenots, on YouTube.
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkmrGz204Ro A 1905 recording of Demougeot] singing "Sombre forêt", from YouTube.
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Category:20th-century French women opera singers