Raoul Samuel Gunsbourg (born January 6, 1860 in Bucharest - died May 31, 1955 in Monte Carlo) was a Jewish-Romania-born^[1] opera director, impresario, composer and writer. Gunsbourg is best known for being the longest-serving director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, where his career spanned almost six decades.

Raoul Gunsbourg acquired his musical education and its comprehensive knowledge in language and literature as a self-taught person. He attended Medical School in Bucharest which he finished in 1875. In 1877-78 he served as a medic in the Russian army during the Russian-Turkish war. In 1881-83 he created and managed the Gunsbourg's French Opera Stage in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Moscow Gunsbourg met German composer Richard Wagner. After returning to France, Gunsbourg directed the Grand Théâtre de Lille during the 1888/89 season and the Opéra de Nice in 1889-91.

In 1892, on recommendation by czar Alexander III of Russia, Gunsbourg was invited by Princess Alice, an American wife of Albert I, Prince of Monaco, to serve as the director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. Empowered by Princess Alice's encouragement and support, Gunsbourg transformed the Opéra de Monte-Carlo into a world-class cultural venue. He was the first opera director to stage Berlioz's La damnation de Faust, which was considered at that time so far more as an oratorio than opera, in his theatre on February 18, 1893.

Gunsbourg's work in Monte Carlo was briefly interrupted during World War II. Assisted by the members of the French Resistance, Gunsbourg fled to nearby Switzerland, nearly escaping the arrest and possible execution by the Nazis who occupied Monaco in 1943 and began the deportation of the Jewish population. After the war was over, Gunsbourg returned to Monaco where he continued directing the Opéra de Monte-Carlo until 1951.

Stage works (operas)[link]

• Le Vieil Aigle (The Old Eagle), 1 act (premiered February 13, 1909 in Monte Carlo)
• Ivan le Terrible, 3 acts (October 20, 1910 in Brussels, Théâtre de la Monnaie)
• Venise, 3 acts (March 8, 1913 in Monte Carlo)
• Maître Manole, 3 acts (March 17, 1918 in Monte Carlo)
• Satan, 9 tableaux (March 20, 1920 in Monte Carlo)
• Lysistrata, 3 acts (February 20, 1923 in Monte Carlo)
• Les Dames galantes de Brantome, 5 scenes (together with M. Thiriet und H. Tomasi) (February 12, 1946 in Monte Carlo)

See also[link]

• Gonsbourg, Raoul (1860-1955)
• Raoul Gonsbourg
• Kobbe's Complate Opera Book on Gunsbourg
• Zwischen Petersburg und Monte Carlo by Raoul Gunsbourg
• Free scores by Raoul Gunsbourg at the International Music Score Library Project

References[link]

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Leonid Sobinov
Born	Leonid Vitalyevich Sobinov (1872-06-07)June 7, 1872 Yaroslavl, Russian Empire
Died	October 14, 1934(1934-10-14) (aged 62) Riga, USSR
Occupation	Operatic singer
Years active	1899-1933

Leonid Vitalyevich Sobinov (Russian: Леони́д Вита́льевич Со́бинов, June 7 [OS May 26] 1872 – October 14, 1934), was an acclaimed Imperial Russian operatic tenor. His fame continued unabated into the Soviet era, and he was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1923. Sobinov's voice was lyrical in size and tone, and it was employed with discerning taste and excellent musicianship.

Biography[link]

	La donna è mobile La donna è mobile (Rigoletto, Giuseppe Verdi) performed by Leonid Sobinov
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Leonid Sobinov was born in Yaroslavl, into the family of the lower middle-class trade officer Vitaly Vasilyevich Sobinov. The period of his childhood was apparently happy and calm. Sobinov's mother, who died early, was a keen singer, and due to her inspiration, he began singing himself. In 1881, at the age of nine, he entered a boys' school, graduating in 1890 with a silver medal. As a schoolboy, he had played the guitar as well as joining a local choir.

Sobinov enrolled in a university course in Moscow. This led to a degree in law, which he received in 1894. After university, Sobinov performed military service and then began to practice law. He also studied singing in Moscow with professors Alexander Dodonov and Alexandra Santagano Gorchakova, who, in 1897, suggested that he attend an audition at the city's Bolshoi Theatre. He did well at the audition, obtaining a Bolshoi contract for an initial period of two years. This contract would lay the foundation for a subsequent singing career of extraordinary success.

Sobinov would go on to appear in Moscow and St Petersburg in operas such as Ruslan and Ludmila, Faust, Manon, Prince Igor, Eugene Onegin, Halka, Rigoletto, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser (as Walter von der Vogelweide) and Mikhail Ivanov's Zabava Putyatishna (as Solovey Budomirovich).^[1]

Sobinov was impressed by the up-and-coming operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin, who was one year younger than he was, and they appeared together on stage in 1899. In that same year he added the parts of Andrej (Mazeppa), Gérald (Lakmé) and Alfredo Germont (La traviata) to his repertoire. After going through the score of Carmen, he declined to take on the role of Don Jose, insisting that its dramatic nature would be too taxing for his voice.

as Dubrovsky in Dubrovsky (1914)

The reigning lyric tenor at the Bolshoi during the 1890s and early 1900s was Nikolay Figner. Figner was a close friend of Russia's leading composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; but Sobinov proved to be the older tenor's equal or superior in every way, surpassing him even as Lensky in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

In order to enlarge his operatic repertoire (having already added to it the tenor leads in Martha, Werther, Mignon and Roméo et Juliette), Sobinov decided to travel to Italy, so that he could experience Italian opera directly. In 1904-06 (and again in 1911) he appeared at Italy's premier opera house, La Scala, Milan. His performances were acclaimed not only in Russia but also in other European countries, owing to the beauty of his voice and the polish of his singing style. As well as the Bolshoi and La Scala, he sang at the:

• Mariinsky Theatre, St.Petersburg
• Palais Garnier, Paris
• Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London
• Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Monte-Carlo
• Teatro Real, Madrid.

Sobinov achieved enormous fame despite facing strong competition for the Russian public's affection from a number of rival male singers of outstanding quality. They included his fellow lyric tenors Dmitri Smirnov (1882-1944) and Andrei Labinsky (1871-1941), the spinto tenor Lev Klementiev (1868-1910) and the dramatic tenor Ivan Yershov (1867-1943). According to his contemporaries, Leonid Sobinov was a person blessed with rare charm. He loved a lot and he was loved by a lot. Famous beauties of his era were constantly falling in love with him. They included, among many others, Elisabeth Sadovskaya, the actress, and Vera Karalli, the ballet dancer and silent-cinema star.

Although Sobinov's first marriage to Maria Karzhavina, a Philharmonic Society schoolmate, did not last, he was devoted to his two sons by her, Boris and George (Yuri) Sobinov. In 1915, he married secondly Nina Mukhina. She was the sister of the renowned Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina, who was the creator of the "Worker and Collective Farmer" monument. It was a happy marriage. They had one daughter, Svetlana.

In 1917, after the Russian Revolution, Sobinov became the first elected director of the Bolshoi Theatre. He undertook a theatrical trip to the Ukraine in 1918 and found himself cut off temporarily from Russia. In 1919, he was assigned to the role of chairman of the musical committee of the all-Ukrainian Division of Arts in Kiev. The year 1920 saw him become a manager at the Division of Public Education in Sevastopol. In 1920 his son Yuri, who served in the White Army, was killed near Militopol. His other son, Boris, a music composer, (1895-1956), emigrated to Germany.

Sobinov again became a director of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1921. Two years later he was selected to be a deputy of the Moscow City Council. He made his last stage appearance in 1933 at a Bolshoi gala held in his honour. The next year, he began work at the operatic studio of Konstantin Stanislavsky as the studio's artistic leader.

On the night of 14 October 1934, Sobinov died in Riga's Hotel Saint Petersburg from a heart attack. Death was instantaneous, and he died in his sleep. His body was transported back to Moscow by special train. He was buried on 19 October at the Novo-Devichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Recordings: CD reissues[link]

Sobinov left a large legacy of recordings made prior to the 1917 Revolution. Many of these have been remastered and reissued on Compact Disc by various firms. These reissues include:

• The Harold Wayne Collection Vol. 36 - His First Recordings 1901-1904, Symposium
• Leonid Sobinov - Recordings 1910 – 1911, Symposium
• Leonid Sobinov - The HMV Catalogue Recordings, Pearl
• Rimsky-Korsakov performed by his Contemporaries, Russian Disc
• Singers of Russia 1900 - 1917 / Sergej Levik and Contemporaries, Symposium
• Singers of Imperial Russia Vol. 1, Pearl
• La Scala Edition Vol. 1, EMI
• Greatest Voices of the Bolshoi, Melodiya
• The 30 Tenors, Symposium
• The Voices of the Tsar Vol. 1 (1901 - 1915), Minerva, as well as
• Mike Richter's Opera Page: The Record of Singing Vol. 1 CD-ROM.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Leonid Sobinov

• Memorial House-Museum of Leonid V. Sobinov: info and photos (Russian, German and English)
• Memorial House-Museum (only English)
• Biography
• History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration
• Arias and romances for free listening and downloading
• 13 arias by Leonid Sobinov (free Mp3 download)

José Luccioni (October 14, 1903, Bastia - October 5, 1978, Marseille) was a French operatic tenor of Corsican origin. He possessed one of the best dramatic voices of the 1930s and 1940s.

Initially a racing car driver and mechanic at the Citroën car company, his voice was discovered while he was serving in the military. He studied singing in Paris with the eminent former tenors Léon David and Léon Escalais and made his debut in Rouen as Cavaradossi in Tosca in 1931. During the 1932-33 season he debuted at both the Palais Garnier and the Opéra-Comique, where he won considerable acclaim as Don José in Carmen, a role he sang an estimated 500 times during his career.

He sang widely in Europe, spending much of 1935-37 in Italy, appearing in Florence, Turin and Verona but mostly at the Rome Opera. He also appeared at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, the Monte Carlo Opera, the Liceo in Barcelona and other European venues. He made his South American debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1936, and sang in the United States at the Lyric Opera of Chicago during the 1937-38 season.

Luccioni had an impressively large voice that combined beauty with power, in the tradition of his great French predecessor at the Paris Opéra, Paul Franz (1876-1950). He was also a fine singing-actor. Notable roles of his included Roland, Samson, Vasco, Jean, Turiddu, Canio, Chenier, Radames and Otello. He also appeared in a few motion pictures, including Colomba (1947) and Le bout de la route (1948). After retirement, he served as Director of the Opéra de Nice.

His son, Jacques Luccioni, was also an opera singer, first as a tenor and later as a baritone.

Luccioni died in the South of France shortly before his 75th birthday. Fortunately, he left a sizeable legacy of recordings made during his vocal prime. A wide selection of these recordings are available on CD. They confirm Luccioni's reputation as being one of the finest ever French dramatic tenors.

Sources[link]

• Operissimo.com