Jeanne Maubourg | |
|---|---|
 Jeanne Maubourg, from a 1913 newspaper | |
| Born | Jeanne Elisabeth Goffaux 10 November 1873 Namur, Belgium |
| Died | 9 May 1953 (1953-05-10) (aged 79) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, singer, educator |
| Spouse(s) | Claude Bede Benedict Albert Roberval Auguste Aramini |
Jeanne Maubourg (November 10, 1873 – 9 May 1953) was a Belgian operaticmezzo-soprano. She sang with theMetropolitan Opera in New York from 1909 to 1914, taught voice in Montreal, and was heard in Canadian radio dramas in the 1930s and 1940s.
Jeanne Maubourg was bornJeanne Elisabeth Goffaux inNamur,[1] the daughter of Alexis Hippolyte Goffaux, a musical conductor, and Marie Anne Nottet. (Her birth record gives 1873 as the date;[2] most secondary sources give 1875 as the year.)
Maubourg, amezzo-soprano, began her opera career at theThéâtre de la Monnaie in 1897. She performed at London'sCovent Garden for four seasons beginning in 1900.[3] She was a member of theMetropolitan Opera from 1909 to 1914.[4] She was in the cast whenArturo Toscanini conducted the American premiere ofGluck'sArmide in 1910, sharing the stage withEnrico Caruso,Olive Fremstad,Louise Homer andAlma Gluck. She was also in the American premieres ofLe donne curiose in 1912 andBoris Gudonov in 1913, both under Toscanini's baton. Her "large repertoire"[5] also included roles inLa Périchole,La bohème,Cavalleria rusticana,Carmen,Hansel and Gretel.[6]Faust,Tales of Hoffmann,Coppélia,Falstaff,[4]Manon Lescaut,Otello,La traviata, andRigoletto.[7] She sang in an operetta on Broadway,The Lilac Domino (1914–1915).[8][9] She had a reputation for being an intelligent and good-natured performer.[10]
In 1915 she joined the Chicago Opera for a year, and in 1916 she performed in Montreal, inGillette de Narbonne. She stayed in Montreal, and she was a member of the Canadian Operetta Society from 1923. Maubourg taught voice students in Montreal,[11] counting among her studentsPierrette Alarie,[12]Fleurette Beauchamp-Huppé,Estelle Mauffette, andMonique Leyrac.[13] Film appearances by Maubourg included a role inLe Pére Chopin (1945). She hosted a program onRadio Canada,[13] and acted in the longrunning radio dramasLa Pension Velder (1938–1942) andMétropole (1943–1956).[6]
Maubourg married three times. She married her first husband, French opera singer Claude Marie Bede Benedict, in 1911.[5] They divorced in 1915.[14][15][16] She married Canadian conductor Albert Roberval in 1918. She married French actorAuguste Aramini in 1947.[17] She died in 1953, in Montreal, in her late seventies. There is a street named for her in her adopted city.[6] Several recordings by Maubourg, from about 1917 and 1924, survive.[18]
