Jacques Isnardon

A French bass-baritone, teacher and writer. Born at Saint-Barnabé outside Marseille, he was meant by his father for the École polytechnique but chose the Paris Conservatoire, and made his Opéra-Comique debut in 1885 in Paladilhe's Diana. He spent three years at La Monnaie in Brussels, whose history he wrote, and sang in London and Monte Carlo. Back at the Opéra-Comique from 1894, he created Colline in the first Paris La bohème in 1898. He taught at the Conservatoire from 1901 to 1924, Fauré saying he could make an umbrella sing, and was elected to the Académie de Marseille in 1929.