Ernest van Dyck

[1] A native of Antwerp, where he was educated in a Jesuit school, Van Dyck studied both law and philosophy in Leuven before deciding to become an opera singer.

[3] In Paris he studied singing with Saint-Yves Bax before making his stage debut at the Théâtre Éden on 3 May 1887; the occasion marked the French premiere of Lohengrin.

[6] With Camille de Roddaz, Van Dyck provided the libretto for Massenet's ballet set in Courtrai ('Légende mimée et dansée en un acte') Le Carillon, for the Vienna State Opera in February 1892.

[3] He appeared regularly at the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels in 1894, where his repertoire included Wagner (Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Tristan) and Massenet (Werther, Des Grieux).

[1] Van Dyck made a few acoustic records in the early 1900s (for Pathé, Fonotipia and Homophone) which show a voice prematurely past its prime after a dozen years of hard, declamatory use in heavy Wagnerian parts.