Description

RAOUL GILLES ( UZÈS, OCTOBER 12, 1896 – UZÈS, JUNE 28, 1982)

 

 

 

 

Raoul Gilles was a French tenor active between the late 1920s and the late 1930s. He took part in the French premiere of Puccini’s Turandot at the Académie Nationale de Musique (Palais Garnier) in Paris on 2 April 1928, singing the role of Pong in the French version of Paul Spaak under the direction of Philippe Gaubert.

In the following decade, Raoul Gilles was frequently engaged at the Grand Théâtre de Tours, where he developed a successful career mainly in opérette and lyric comedy. Between 1936 and 1939, he appeared there in a large number of productions, displaying notable versatility and stage charm. His repertoire at Tours included roles such as the Duc d’Aumale in Sidonie Panache (Joseph Szulc), Franzi in Rêve de valse (Oscar Straus), Hassan in Le chant du désert (Sigmund Romberg), Prince Paul in La dernière valse (Oscar Straus), Maricoussa in Toi, c’est moi (Moïse Simons), René in La chaste Suzanne (Jean Gilbert), Auguste in Passionnément (André Messager), Le Lieutenant in Le touareg blanc (Fernand Carion), Flageolet in Surcouf (Robert Planquette), Le Grand-Prêtre Molokaï in Fleur d’Hawaï (Paul Abraham), Jérôme in Pour plaire aux dames (Walter Kollo), and Alexis in La chaste Suzanne (Jean Gilbert).

With his light tenor voice and refined comic instinct, Raoul Gilles was particularly admired in the Viennese and French operetta repertoire, becoming one of the characteristic figures of the Tours lyrical stage in the interwar years.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

Le crucifix (Faure) (w. Couzinou) Polydor 521813

Les Violettes (Flégier) Polydor 522006

L’Heure Espagnole (Ravel) Un financier, et un poète (w. Arnoult, Dufranne, Aubert & Krieger) Columbia 68844-D WLX907

Madame Larchiduc (Lecocq) Ne rentrez pas encore (w. Duroy) Polydor 521532

Stances (Flégier) Polydor 522006