Jane Bathori (14 June 1877 – 25 January 1970) was a French mezzo-soprano. She was famous on the operatic stage and important in the development of contemporary French music.

Life and career

Born Jeanne-Marie Berthier, she originally studied piano and planned a career as concert pianist but soon turned to singing, making her professional debut some time in 1898 at the small '' Théâtre de la Bodinière'' in the Rue Saint-Lazare in a concert to celebrate the poet

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the '' fin de siècle'' in international and ...

.Girard, Victor
"Jane Bathori"
Marston Records, 1998 In the same year she made her debut in the ''grands concerts'' at the ''Concerts du Conservatoire'' followed by performances in Fauré's ''La Naissance de Vénus'' and Saint-Saëns's ''Messe de Requiem''. During the season 1899–1900 she made her operatic debut at Nantes.Cox, David
"Bathori, Jane"
Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 12 March 2015 Her first roles included soprano parts such as Mimi in ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...

'' and Micaëla in '' Carmen''. In the early 1900s Bathori began studying with Pierre-Émile Engel, whom she married in 1908. She became celebrated for her performance of

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

's song cycle'' Shéhérazade'' and gave the premières of his '' Histoires naturelles'' (of which she was the dedicatee) and of his ''Chansons madécasses''. In 1917 Bathori became the director of the ''Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier''. In the early 1920s she played an important role in the propagation of new music of this period,

Jean-Pierre Thiollet Jean-Pierre Thiollet (; born 9 December 1956) is a French writer and journalist. Primarily living in Paris, he is the author of numerous books and one of the national leaders of the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CEDI), a ...

, ''88 notes pour piano solo'' (Magland: Neva Editions, 2015), pp. 102–103. especially by some of the members of

Les Six "Les Six" () is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's '' The Five'', originates in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in ' ...

, giving many first performances of their works and those of others. Throughout the 1930s Bathori appeared every year at the

Teatro Colón The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acousti ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. In 1935 she was appointed to the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

for her services to French music. During the German occupation of France in the Second World War she made

her home. After her return to France she taught singing, and gave frequent talks for French radio. Bathori died in Paris in 1970, aged 92.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bathori, Jane 1877 births 1970 deaths 19th-century French women opera singers 20th-century French women opera singers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French operatic mezzo-sopranos Singers from Paris