Pierre Jélyotte

Pierre Jélyotte (13 April 1713 – 11 September 1797) was a French operatic tenor, particularly associated with works by Rameau, Lully, Campra, Mondonville and Destouches.

Born Pierre Grichon in Lasseube, he studied in Toulouse (voice, harpsichord, guitar, violin, composition) and made his stage debut in Paris as a singer at the Concert Spirituel in 1733.

He thereafter created several roles in opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, such as; Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Indes galantes, Dardanus, and Zoroastre, as well as in opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully, André Campra, and André Cardinal Destouches.

He then joined the "Orchestre du Roi" (the King's Orchestra) as a violinist and guitarist, and later joined the private orchestra of Madame de Pompadour as a cellist, and wrote a few "comédies-ballets", notably Zeliska.

Widely regarded as the "greatest singer of Europe" in his time, his voice type was then known as haute-contre, his voice was by all account powerful, and in some ways prefigured a new vocal type closer to the tenor as we know it today, opening the doors to a new style of singing, as Adolphe Nourrit and Gilbert Duprez would soon demonstrate.