Jean-Christophe Benoît


Jean-Christophe Benoît was a French baritone, who enjoyed a long career in France and francophone countries on the stage, the concert platform and radio and television. He was born in Paris into a professional musical family, and finished his career there as a teacher.

Life and career

His parents were musicians, and he began young to discover his musical talents. Attending the Paris Conservatoire, his tutors included Olivier Messiaen, Noel Gallon and Gabriel Dubois.
Composing at this time, Benoît provided incidental music for Yves Joly's Théâtre de Marionnettes in Paris, while soon establishing a career on the stage and concert platform, his vocal style lending itself toward opéra-comique.
In the early 1950s Benoît began studio recording; his Mathurin being described in Opera on Record as "even at this early stage of his career Jean-Christophe Benoît's wit was readily flourished; his rustic accent is hilarious" He sang Dancaïre in Carmen in four separate studio versions.
He sang in the world premiere of Madame de... by Jean-Michel Damase in Monte Carlo on 22 March 1970 conducted by the composer. Frank Martin wrote Pilate for him, and it was created in Rome in 1964. He also sang in the premiere of the opera Comme il vous plaira by Pierre Hasquenoph in Strasbourg in 1982.
Although Benoît mainly appeared in French operatic roles at the Opéra-Comique and Opéra his repertoire was wide, ranging from Monteverdi to contemporary works, but often of music requiring dramatic effect. In September 1976 he appeared in Turandot in Geneva. Outside France he appeared at La Scala and Geneva.
In Brussels his roles included Momus in Platée, Guillaume Mericy in La passion de Gilles, Schlemil in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Baron Douphol in La Traviata and Der Baron in Der ferne Klang.
From 1970 to 1990 he was a professor at the Paris Conservatoire; he was also an invited tutor at the Centre d'Art du Mont-Orford in Quebec.

Recording

His many recordings include:
Benoît appeared with his sister in the Lully above, and in a series of French folk and popular songs recorded in the 1950s for the Club National du disque and Ducretet-Thomson. He sang the vocal numbers on the 1973 CBS LP 'Concert à la cour d'Henri IV', with the Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy directed by Jean-Claude Malgoire.
He recorded Ravel's Histoires naturelles on Selmer in the 1950s, the Chansons villageoises, Le Bal masqué and Le Bestiare by Poulenc on Pathé in 1965, mélodies by Reynaldo Hahn and Au pays de la magie by Maurice Le Roux, with Georges Pludermacher, piano on Adès, 1974. Accompanied by Bernard Ringeissen, he recorded an LP of sixteen songs by József Kosma for Disques Adès in 1976.
He provided the narration for the French versions of Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with Hans Swarowsky conducting the Pro Musica Orchester Wien.
He appeared in a large number of broadcasts on French radio and television, singing many French premieres, of works by Baudrier, Britten, Delerue, Nigg, Prokofiev and Semenoff. Among operatic recordings for French radio were Le Marquis de Pontcalé, Ouf, Gaston, Charles Martel and Sganarelle.

Family

His mother was a musician and composer, while his father Henri Benoît was a notable viola player in Paris, who was a member of the Capet Quartet in the 1920s, participating in several of their recordings during that period. His sister, Denise Benoît was a popular and much recorded soprano and actress. Mother, son and daughter appeared together on record in Chants de France : Mountabo la marmite on Ducretet-Thomson LPG 8 220.