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The French baritone, Robert Massard was mainly self-taught. After singing in his native province, he made his professional debut at the Paris Opera in 1952, as the High Priest in Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila, shortly followed by Valentin in Charles Gounod's Faust. The same year, he also made his debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, as Thoas in Iphigénie en Tauride. His career rapidly took an international dimension with debuts in 1955, at La Scala and the Glyndebourne Festival, both as Ramiro in L'heure espagnole. Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride was his debut role at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Royal Opera House in London, and the Edinburgh Festival. He also appeared in North and South America, notably at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Henceforth considered one of the best French baritone of his generation, he was internationally acclaimed as Valentin in Faust, Escamillo in Georges Bizet's Carmen, Fieramosca in Benvenuto Cellini, and Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande.
Altouhgh Robert Massard is primarily associated with the French repertoire, he also enjoyed considerable success in the Italian repertoire, singing Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, notably at the Paris Opera in 1960, opposite Joan Sutherland, and Riccardo in I puritani in London in 1961, again with Joan Sutherland. He also appeared as Rigoletto and Germont in La traviata. Massard also sang in contemporary works, such as Le Roi David by Arthur Honegger, L'école des maris by Emmanuel Bondeville, and Médée by Darius Milhaud.
Robert Massard He is one of a number of outstanding French opera singers of the postwar era. He made many recordings, the two most famous being Faust, opposite Joan Sutherland, Franco Corelli, Nicolai Ghiaurov, and Carmen, opposite Maria Callas, Nicolai Gedda and Andréa Guiot, with Georges Prêtre conducting.
Robert Massard was also active as a teacher at the Conservatoire de musique of Bordeaux. Among his pupils: Sydney Fierro (Bass-Baritone) |
