Around the Music Festival

French renowned tenor Michel Sénéchal died on April 1. He was 91 years old. He was active in opera and operetta for a long time, mainly in France, with the comical performance with its unique flavor as a weapon. Born in Paris, he studied vocal music at Conservatoire de Paris, debuted at the Monet Theater in Brussels in 1950, in Opéra national de Paris in 1952 and Opera Comique. In that year, he won the first prize in the Geneva International Music Competition Vocal Music Division. Salzburg music festival, Aix-en-Provence music festival, etc. Since the 1980s, he has been acting as a leader at the vocal school of the National Opera, etc. at the same time as the performance activities. He was the leader of the French music culture, with the conductor Georges Platele establishing the association “L ‘Art du chant français = ACF”.

Sénéchal shows a distinctive presence even when playing a leading role, as well as a leading role, and the repertoire is a wide range from baroque opera such as Rameau to contemporary music such as Messian and a lot of recordings. First of all, the role he was good at is Offenbach “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” 4 clowns (Andre / Kosunyu / Franz / Pitikinaccio). At the Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in 1982, he also plays the four roles at once. Also, Mozart “The Marriage of Figaro” Don Basillio, the title role of Rossini “Le Comte Ory”, Tchaikovsky “Evgeny Onegin” Triquit, Puccini “Madama Butterfly” Goro and so on. In many cases, there are many strong role of habit, and from being able to perform them wonderfully, it was also described as “character actor” in the opera world.