Jean de Reszke - Sibling Singers

Sibling Singers

Jean de Reszke's younger brother Édouard de Reszke was also internationally famous as an operatic singer—but in the basso range. Édouard's operatic debut was in Aida in Paris in April 1876, under Verdi's baton. His debut was a success and he proceeded to sing with distinction alongside his brother for many years on the London-Paris-New York circuit. Édouard was said to have had an even more impressive voice than the one possessed by his older brother; but music critics considered Jean to have been the more cultured, conscientious and sophisticated artist of the two.

The de Reszke brothers were siblings of the soprano Josephine de Reszke, who gave up a promising operatic career in Paris in 1885 at the request of her aristocratic husband. Édouard, however, continued to sing opera until 1903. After living for a time in London, he went back to Poland where he died in reduced circumstances in 1917. Unlike Jean, Édouard left a few commercial recordings of his voicem, ade by Columbia Records in New York. Unfortunately, these were made when he was past his prime as a singer. (See the entry for Édouard de Reszke in vocal historian Michael Scott's The Record of Singing, Volume One, published by Duckworth, London, 1977.)