Draft:Jean Lassalle (Baritone)

Jean (Louis) Lassalle (1847-1909) was a French Baritone Opera singer, most famous in the final quarter of the 19th Century. He enjoyed a long and fruitful career in Opera, achieving national and international fame.

Early Life and Studies
He was born in Lyon, in 1847, the son of a silk trader. He left Lyon for Paris, despite initially training to be a draughtsman, Lassalle entered the Conservatoire National in the late 1860s. . He studied there under Novelli for a short time, before leaving the Conservatoir to study under Édouard Lavessière. Lassalle would later claim Lavessière as his sole instructor

Operatic Career
Lassalle made his debut as Saint-Bris in Les Huguenots (Meyerbeer) on the 19th of November 1868. Over the next six years, Lassalle performed all over west continental Europe. One of his most popular performances being his duet with Lavessière in La muette de Portici, with Lassalle being cast as Piétro.

In 1872, on the 10th of June, Lassalle made his debut at the Grand Opéra in Paris as the titular character of William Tell by Gioachino Rosinni. . In 1877, Lassalle introduced Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore at the Grand Opéra as Scindia, the antagonist of the opera. This role would solidify Lassalle's career, giving him international fame

In 1879, he would introduce Massenet's opera to audiences at Covent Garden, returning in 1880 and 1881.

From 1892 to 1897, Lassalle moved to New York. , performing a number of unusual roles for the Metropolitan Opera, occasionally performing in Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston, all while still making a number of appearances at the Grand Opéra

Lassalle made his final stage performances in 1898, on a tour from Straßburg to Berlin.

Teaching Career
Following his operatic career, Lassalle moved on to teaching. In 1901 he opened his own singing school. before being appointed at his former place of study, the Conservatiore National

During his teaching career, Lassalle made a number of recordings, a technology still in its infancy. The recordings he made were for a French company, Pathé. The recordings produced by Pathé were exclusively of French performers in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

Marriage, Legacy and Death
In 1907, Lassalle married his student, mezzo-soprano Suzanne Faye (1885–1976), with whom he had a daughter, Nicollette-Andrée (1908-1984). Nicollette-Andrée was not Lassalle's first child, he had previously fathered children with Anna “Jeanne” Piotruszynska (1852-1888), but never married her. Of his elder children, Robert Lassalle is the most notabale, having a career in opera, as a tenor, like his father.

Jean Lassalle died in 1909 and has become largely forgotten to time.