Bernard Lefort (29 July 1922 – 19 January 1999), was a French lyric baritone, and later an opera director.

Biography

Born in Paris, Lefort was a pupil of the Institution Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix and then sang in the college choir of the Schola (the

Petits chanteurs de Sainte-Croix de Neuilly The Paris Boys Choir (Les Petits Chanteurs de Sainte-Croix de Neuilly) is a boys' choir created in 1956 at Collège Sainte-Croix de Neuilly in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. Louis Prudhomme founded the choir in 1956, as a revival to ...

).Vidéo INA 26 February 1978 in
/ref> He then began a career as a baritone, mainly in French

mélodie A ''mélodie'' () is a form of French art song, arising in the mid-19th century. It is comparable to the German ''Lied''. A ''chanson'', by contrast, is a folk or popular French song. The literal meaning of the word in the French language is "melod ...

s ( Germaine Tailleferre composed for him her ', for baritone and orchestra in 1956), but also in operetta and opera (he performed in the mid-1950s au

Théâtre du Châtelet The Théâtre du Châtelet () is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. One of two theatres (the other being the Théâtre de la Ville) built on the site of a ''châtelet'', a ...

and at the Paris Opera). He stopped singing for health reasons in the late 1950s. He then became Artistic Director of the Lausanne Festival, then directed the

Opéra de Marseille The Opéra de Marseille, known today as the Opéra Municipal, is an opera company located in Marseille, France. In 1685, the city was the second in France after Bordeaux to have an opera house which was erected on a tennis court. However, the fi ...

from 1965 to 1968. He will then lead the , le Festival de Royaumont, then the Paris Opera, and finally the

Aix-en-Provence Festival The Festival d'Aix-en-Provence is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental ...

from 1974 to 1982 (where he succeeded Gabriel Dussurget).

References

External links

Bernard Lefort
on Forum Opera {{DEFAULTSORT:Lefort, Bernard Singers from Paris French operatic baritones Opera managers Directors of the Paris Opera 1922 births 1999 deaths 20th-century French male opera singers Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres