Jeanne Maubourg

Jeanne Maubourg (November 10, 1873 – 9 May 1953) was a Belgian opera singer. She sang with the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1909 to 1914, taught voice in Montreal, and was heard in Canadian radio dramas in the 1930s and 1940s.

Jeanne Maubourg
An illustration of the face and shoulders of a white woan, wearing a jeweled headband in her coiffed hair, and an embroidered or lacy blouse with pearls
Jeanne Maubourg, from a 1913 newspaper
Born
Jeanne Elisabeth Goffaux

10 November 1873
Namur, Belgium
Died9 May 1953 (1953-05-10) (aged 79)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation(s)Actress, singer, educator
Spouse(s)Claude Bede Benedict
Albert Roberval
Auguste Aramini

Early life

Jeanne Maubourg was born Jeanne Elisabeth Goffaux in Namur,[1] the daughter of Alexis Hippolyte Goffaux, a musical conductor, and Marie Anne Nottet. (Her birth record gives 1873 as the date;[2] most secondary sources give 1875 as the year.)

A white woman in a corseted costume, resembling the dress of an 18th-century European man, with a brimmed hat, a long coat, an embroidered waistcoat, knee-length reeches, and silk stockings; she is standing next to a chair, with one hand on her hip
Jeanne Maubourg in costume, from a 1900 publication

Career

Maubourg, a mezzo-soprano, began her opera career at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in 1897. She performed at London's Covent Garden for four seasons beginning in 1900.[3] She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera from 1909 to 1914.[4] She was in the cast when Arturo Toscanini conducted the American premiere of Gluck's Armide in 1910, sharing the stage with Enrico Caruso, Olive Fremstad, Louise Homer and Alma Gluck. She was also in the American premieres of Le donne curiose in 1912 and Boris Gudonov in 1913, both under Toscanini's baton. Her "large repertoire"[5] also included roles in La Périchole, La bohème, Cavalleria rusticana, Carmen, Hansel and Gretel.[6] Faust, Tales of Hoffmann, Coppélia, Falstaff,[4] Manon Lescaut, Otello, La traviata, and Rigoletto.[7] She sang in an operetta on Broadway, The Lilac Domino (1914–1915).[8][9] She had a reputation for being an intelligent and good-natured performer.[10]

In 1915 she joined the Chicago Opera for a year, and in 1916 she performed in Montreal, in Gillette de Narbonne. She stayed in Montreal, and she was a member of the Canadian Operetta Society from 1923. Maubourg taught voice students in Montreal,[11] counting among her students Pierrette Alarie,[12] Fleurette Beauchamp-Huppé, Estelle Mauffette, and Monique Leyrac.[13] Film appearances by Maubourg included a role in Le Pére Chopin (1945). She hosted a program on Radio Canada,[13] and acted in the longrunning radio dramas La Pension Velder (1938–1942) and Métropole (1943–1956).[6]

Personal life

Maubourg married three times. She married her first husband, French opera singer Claude Marie Bede Benedict, in 1911.[5] They divorced in 1915.[14][15][16] She married Canadian conductor Albert Roberval in 1918. She married French actor Auguste Aramini in 1947.[17] She died in 1953, in Montreal, in her late seventies. There is a street named for her in her adopted city.[6] Several recordings by Maubourg, from about 1917 and 1924, survive.[18]

References
  1. International Who's who in Music and Musical Gazetteer: A Contemporary Biographical Dictionary and a Record of the World's Musical Activity. Current Literature Publishing Company. 1918. p. 414.
  2. Genealogie, Coret. "Birth Jeanne Elisabeth Goffaux (in the year 1800-1912) in Namur, Namur, Belgique, province Namur (Belgium)". Open Archives. Retrieved 2021-04-19.
  3. Wearing, J. P. (2013-12-05). The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-8108-9294-1.
  4. "Jeanne Maubourg". Metropolitan Opera Archives. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  5. Lahee, Henry Charles (1922). The Grand Opera Singers of To-day: An Account of the Leading Operatic Stars who Have Sung During Recent Years, Together with a Sketch of the Chief Operatic Enterprises. Page Company. pp. 280–281.
  6. Potvin, Gilles (4 March 2015). "Jeanne Maubourg". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  7. Hines, Dixie; Hanaford, Harry Prescott (1914). Who's who in Music and Drama. H.P. Hanaford. pp. 494, 496, 498.
  8. Floyd (1914). "Jeanne Maubourg as Baroness de Villiers, Eleanor Painter as Georgine and Rene Delting as Leonie D'Andorcet in 'The Lilac Domino'". Museum of the City of New York. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  9. Holcomb, Willard (October 22, 1914). "Musical Topics". National Courier. 4: 22.
  10. "Capitalizing Good Humor". The Buffalo Sunday Morning News. 1913-01-12. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-04-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Theodora Duer Larocque Leaves Society for the Stage". New York Herald. 1920-08-07. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-04-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Potvin, Gilles (2009-01-01), "Alarie-Simoneau, Pierrette", The Grove Book of Opera Singers, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780195337655.001.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-533765-5, retrieved 2021-04-18
  13. Cullingham, James (January 3, 2020). "Chanteuse Monique Leyrac brought Quebec culture to the world". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  14. "JEANNE MAUBOURG SUES.; Opera Singer Asks Separation from Claude Bede". The New York Times. 1914-01-31. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  15. "The Embarrassment of Being a Phantom Husband". The Sunday Telegram. 1915-07-25. p. 29. Retrieved 2021-04-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Jeanne Maubourg Wins". The Evening World. 1915-06-16. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-04-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Auguste Aramini, singer (circa 1875-1950)". Virtual Gramophone, Library and Archives Canada. 2014-02-24. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  18. "Maubourg, Jeanne". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
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