Léon Carvalho

Léon Carvalho ( Léon Carvaille; * January 18, 1825 in Port Louis, Mauritius, † December 29, 1897 in Paris) was a French singer and opera director.

Carvalho studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and was from 1850 to 1855 singer (baritone ) at the Opéra -Comique. Here he met the singer Marie Miolan, whom he married in 1853. In 1856 he became head of the Théâtre Lyrique. In 1868 he also took over the Théâtre de la Renaissance, but went bankrupt in the same year and lost both sites.

From 1872 to 1874 Carvalho headed the Théâtre du Vaudeville, for which he, inter alia, Bizet's L' Arlesienne incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's eponymous drama was in order, which was premiered in 1872. From 1876 he was director of the Opéra- Comique. Under his leadership, found here, among others the world premiere of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, Delibes ' Lakmé, Massenet's Manon, and Chabrier's Le roi malgré lui instead.

On May 25, 1885 broke at the Opéra -Comique, caused by a defect in the lighting, during a performance of Ambroise Thomas ' opera Mignon from a devastating fire that claimed more than a hundred deaths. Carvalho was blamed for the accident and sentenced to a prison and fined, but acquitted on appeal.

He received the end of 1890 again the management of the Opéra -Comique, where he among other things, Alfred Bruneau's L' attaque du moulin and Massenet's Sapho brought the world premiere (after Alphonse Daudet ). Carvalho was awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour.