Jean-Baptiste Faure

During this time he also created the Marquis d'Erigny in Auber's Manon Lescaut (1856) and Hoël in Meyerbeer's Le pardon de Ploërmel (1859; later known as Dinorah), among seven premieres at that house.

Among the many operas in which he appeared in Paris were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni as well as L'étoile du nord, Les Huguenots and La favorite.

He also made history by creating several important operatic roles written by such prominent composers as Giacomo Meyerbeer, Giuseppe Verdi and Ambroise Thomas.

Both Plançon and Lassalle made a number of recordings during the early 1900s, and their cultivated performances for the gramophone preserve key elements of Faure's singing style and technique.

The affectionate honorific in the supposed Faure cylinder recording only makes sense for a man of advanced years who is so beloved, celebrated, and revered by a general public that he need not even be named.

A sampling of writing about Faure in this role and specifically this recitative and aria: His voice is skilled in rendering the most violent as well as the gentlest emotions; and right royal is the way in which he sings the "Jardins de l'Alcazar"[...]It was before a house crowded to the ceiling that the celebrated baritone sang the part of Alphonse in a manner thoroughly justifying the brilliant ovation of which he was the object[...] Only those persons who have heard the great artist in La Favorite can have any notion how much Donizetti's music gains in value and charm by such an interpreter.

What a striking expression of despite and irony he infused into the romance of the third act, 'Pour tant d'amour...'!In addition, Faure composed several enduring songs, including a "Sancta Maria", "Les Rameaux" ("The Palms") and "Crucifix".

[4] An avid collector of impressionist art, Faure sat for multiple portraits by Édouard Manet and owned 67 canvases by that painter, including the masterpiece Le déjeuner sur l'herbe and The Fifer.