Jean de Reszke - Fame

Fame

He sang regularly at the Paris Opéra during the ensuing years of his vocal prime and, in 1887, was re-engaged by the management at London's Drury Lane, delivering among other things a notable Radamès in Verdi's Aida. The following year he was heard again in London, appearing no longer at Drury Lane but at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, lending his unique blend of dash and charm to the following roles: Vasco da Gama in L'Africaine and Raoul in Les Huguenots (both by Meyerbeer), Faust in Faust (by Gounod), Lohengrin in Lohengrin (by Wagner), Riccardo in Un ballo in Maschera (by Verdi), and Radamès again.

De Reszke's 1888 Covent Garden appearances proved exceedingly popular with audiences. Indeed, they were mainly responsible for the revival of the operatic art form as a fashionable amusement in London. He would sing in the British capital nearly every year until 1900, adding a number of new roles to his canon during this time. They included, among others, John of Leyden in Meyerbeer's Le prophète, Don José in Bizet's Carmen, Roméo in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and Wagner's Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Siegfried in Siegfried. He also gave (in 1894) a single performance as the tenor lead in Massenet's Werther. De Reszke's singing was admired by Queen Victoria, and between 1889 and 1900 he was invited to take part in a number of royal galas mounted at Covent Garden or command performances held privately at Windsor Castle.

In 1891, de Reszke sang in the United States for the first time. From 1893 to 1899 he starred in every season at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, virtually duplicating his London list of operatic roles and having an equally charismatic effect on trans-Atlantic audiences. One of De Reszke's colleagues, the Australian lyric soprano Nellie Melba, became a close personal friend of his during this period. She replaced the ageing star Adelina Patti as the most celebrated of his various stage partners, and she speaks admiringly of him in her memoirs.

He was closely associated with the French and Wagnerian operatic repertoires during the peak of his career at Covent Garden and the Met. His French signature parts were considered to be Meyerbeer's three big tenor heroes (Vasco, Jean and Raoul), Gounod's Faust and Romeo, and the title role in Massenet's Le Cid (which was written expressly for him).

De Reszke was equally successful singing in German, and his appearances as Lohengrin, Walther von Stolzing, Siegfried and Tristan were lauded by music critics, who praised him for demonstrating how the extremely demanding and often declamatory music that Wagner wrote for his heldentenors could be sung with beauty of tone and, wherever practicable, a smooth legato line. American-born Lillian Nordica was the most illustrious of the dramatic sopranos that partnered him in Wagner's operas.

During his heyday, De Reszke sang Italian operas less frequently than French or Wagnerian ones. Indeed, in 1891, his keenly awaited interpretation of the title role in Verdi's last tragic masterpiece, Otello, had disappointed the critics somewhat; while expertly sung, it lacked the clarion ring and elemental force that his main tenor rival, Francesco Tamagno (1850-1905), had brought to the part.