Rose Caron

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

Early life
Caron was born on 17 November 1857 in Monnerville. She studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was not accepted into the Paris Opera. Her husband, an accompanist, encouraged her to take lessons from Marie Sasse. With Sasse's help, Caron secured engagements at the opera in Brussels following her concert debut in 1880.

Career
Her operatic debut in Brussels was as Alice in Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable. She went on to perform as Salomé in Massenet's Hérodiade and Marguerite in Gounod's Faust. Ernest Reyer took notice of her talent and chose her play the role of Brunehild in Sigurd in 1884 (with a Paris premiere in 1885). In 1888, she originated the role of Laurence in Benjamin Godard's Jocelyn at La Monnaie de Munt in Brussels. In 1890, Caron also originated the title role in Reyer's Salammbo  in Brussels.

In 1885, she began singing at the Paris Opera, where she became the chief rival of Lucienne Bréval. Caron was the first in Paris to sing Desdemona in Verdi's Otello. Her repertoire included several Wagnerian roles, including Sieglinde in Die Walküre, as well as Rachel in Halévy's La Juive and Valentine in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. At the Opéra-Comique, she sang Léonore in Beethoven's Fidelio (in 1898) and the title roles in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride and Orphée.

Caron sang in the first performance of Debussy's L'enfant prodigue on 27 July 1884, as part of the composition competition of the Prix de Rome in Paris.

Caron sang a few times with the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire: in December 1885/January 1886, she performed airs from Der Freischütz by Weber and La vestale by Spontini; at the official concert of the Exposition Universelle on 20 June 1889, fragments from Ambroise Thomas's Psyché and excerpts from Reyer's Sigurd; and in March 1895, scenes from Gluck's Alceste.

She also sang Marguerite in the stage premiere of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust at Monte Carlo in 1893.

After 1895, she reduced her public appearances considerably and concentrated on teaching at the Paris Conservatoire (1904–09) and then as a private tutor. 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.

Personal life
During her lifetime, Caron was linked with French statesman Théophile Delcassé and the Prime Minister of France Georges Clemenceau.

She died in Paris at the age of 72 and was buried at the Monnerville Cemetery.