Jean-Paul Fouchécourt is a French tenor, mostly as an opera singer. He was born on 30 August 1958 at Blanzy in the Burgundy region. He is best known for singing French Baroque music, especially the parts called in French haute-contre, written for a very high tenor voice with no falsetto singing.

Life and career

Specialist in French Baroque repertory, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt gained his reputation with his portrayal of the title role Platée by Rameau, Arnalta in l’Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi, the four servants in the Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach and le Mari in the Mamelles de Tirésias by Poulenc.

After studying the classical saxophone and conducting, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt decided to become a singer after a workshop with Cathy Berberian in 1982. He began his career with Les Arts Florissants directed by William Christie in 1986, having concerts in Europe, US, Soviet Union, South America, Australia and Japan. Jean-Paul Fouchécourt then went on to work with the conductor Marc Minkowski and his Musiciens du Louvre: highlights of his career in the Baroque repertory include the title roles of Hippolyte et Aricie by Rameau, Titon et l’Aurore by Mondonville, Acis et Galatée by Lully and Resurrezione by Handel. He has also collaborated with other Baroque ensembles.

Fouchécourt has performed with many of the world’s leading opera companies, including Royal Opera House - London, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opéra Bastille, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra national du Rhin, and Opéra national de Montpellier, La Monnaie, Vlaams Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Lausanne Opera and Zürich Opera, Dutch National Opera, Theater an der Wien, Israeli Opera and Opera Australia.

His operatic productions have included L'enfant et les sortilèges and L'heure Espagnole (Torquemada) by Ravel, Le Nozze di Figaro (Basilio) by Mozart, Orphée aux Enfers (Pluton) by Offenbach, Falstaff (Bardolfo) by Verdi, Manon (Guillot de Morfontaine) by Massenet, Madame Butterfly (Goro) by Puccini, Eugene Onegin (Monsieur Triquet) by Tchaikovsky, L'étoile (Ouf 1er) by Chabrier, Calisto (Pane) by Cavalli, and The Golden Cockerel (The astrologer) by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt has also performed at music festivals including Aix-en-Provence, Chorégies d'Orange (France), Berkley (USA), Saito Kinen (Japan), BBC Proms, Edinburgh (UK), and Salzburg (Austria).

His discography of more than 100 recordings includes works from Monteverdi, Mondonville, Rameau, Fauré, Bizet, Boulanger, Delage, Poulenc, Offenbach, Ravel, and Rosenthal to Szymanowski.

In 2000, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt was honoured with the 'Chevalier de l’ordre National du Mérite' by the French Government.

He became the artistic director of the Studio de l’Opéra de Lyon (SOL) in 2011.

Source: Article "Jean-Paul Fouchécourt" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.