Charles-Amable Battaille

[1] He won first prizes in singing, opera and opéra comique in 1847[2] and made his début at the Opéra-Comique on 22 June 1848 in Donizetti's La Fille du régiment.

He was appreciated both for his "beautiful round, full, well timbred, flattering and caressing voice sometimes, energetic and powerful in other cases"[1] and for his acting.

Definitely launched, he premiered many roles including Atalmuc in Halévy's La Fée aux roses[4] (1849), Falstaff in Adam's Songe d’une nuit d’été (1850), Roskaw in Halévy's La Dame de pique[5] (1850), Mathéus in Albert Grisar's Le Carillonneur de Bruges[6] (1852), in Reber's Le Père Gaillard[7] (1852), Torrida in Auber's Marco Spada[8] (1852), Péters in Meyerbeer's L'Étoile du nord (1854), le Commandeur in Thomas' La cour de Célimène (1855), Gédéon in Adam's Le Houzard de Berchini[9] (1855), Nicolas in Massé's Les Saisons (1855), Gilbert in Halévy's Valentine d'Aubigny (1856) and Mercure in Thomas' Psyché(1857).

[2] He left the stage in 1857 after a laryngeal disease, but quickly returned, first to the provinces, then to the Théâtre Lyrique where he participated in the première of Gounod's Philémon et Baucis (1860).

[3] Appointed professor at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1851, he was the author of a two-volume singing textbook : I. Nouvelles recherches sur la phonation (1861) and II.