Léon Melchissédec
French opera singer
Léon Melchissédec (born Clermont Ferrand, 7 May 1843, died Neuilly-sur-Seine 23 March 1925) was a French baritone who enjoyed a long career in the French capital across a broad range of operatic genres, and later made some recordings and also taught at the Paris Conservatoire.
Life and career
He played second violin in the Théâtre de Saint-Étienne before coming to Paris to study.
After classes with Alkan, Puget, Mocker and Levasseur at the Paris Conservatoire, where he won a first prize in 1865, he made his debut at the Paris Opéra-Comique on 16 July 1866 in Cohen's José Maria.
Remaining at the Opéra-Comique until 1877, Melchissédec’s repertoire included Les Absents, Le premier jour de bonheur, Lalla-Roukh, Robinson Crusoé, Les dragons de Villars, Le pré aux clercs, Fantasio, Mireille, Richard Cœur de Lion and Le caïd. In 1873 he became the first true baritone to sing the title role of Zampa (as opposed to a singer of mixed voice).
He moved next to the Théâtre-Lyrique, singing in Dimitri, Le capitaine Fracasse and the premieres of Paul et Virginie and Le timbre d’argent. In 1879 he joined the Paris Opéra, making his debut as Nevers in Les Huguenots on 17 November 1879. His repertoire there included Guillaume Tell, L'Africaine, La Favorite, Rigoletto, Faust, and he created roles in Le Tribut de Zamora, Tabarin, and Le Cid. Having sung Capulet in the first performance of Roméo et Juliette at the Opéra-Comique in 1873, he sang Mercutio when it transferred to the repertory of the Opéra.
Melchissédec left the Opéra in 1891 but rejoined from 1905–12, having become a professor of déclamation lyrique at the Paris Conservatoire in 1894.
“Léon Melchissédec” enters the record as french opera singer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Léon, Melchissédec and French can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 29, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6711099. VIAF identifies the subject as 775152. The Library of Congress control number is nr99039651. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1843, 1925, 1865 and 1866.
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This entry incorporates text from “Léon Melchissédec” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.