Hippolyte Belhomme
Hippolyte-Adolphe Belhomme, was a prominent French bass or bass-baritone and long-term member of the Opéra-Comique company in Paris. He also made some important early opera recordings, displaying on them a lyrical voice of great flexibility.
Career
As a pupil of Boulanger and Ponchard he won second prize for singing and opéra comique at the Paris Conservatoire. Belhomme made his debut as Baskir in Lalla-Roukh at the Opéra-Comique on 11 November 1879; although of short stature his vocal authority was impressive.Belhomme sang much of the repertoire for the basses chantantes at the Opéra-Comique up to June 1886 and then again from 1891 to 1916: he sang in Carmen, Cendrillon, La fille du régiment ''Madama Butterfly, Mignon, Tosca and Werther, as well as roles in many other French and Italian operas in the Opéra-Comique repertory. Belhomme created the following roles at the Opéra-Comique:
- Mathurin in
From 1902, Belhomme appeared each season at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, as Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the devil in Grisélidis in 1902, Doronte in Attendez-moi sous l'orme in 1903, the sacristan in Tosca in 1904, the vicar in Pepita Jiménez and the Duc de Longueville in La Basoche in 1905, Brander in La damnation de Faust and a soldier in The Trojans in 1906, Kezal in La fiancée vendue and a Jew in Salomé'' in 1907.