Albert Saléza by Benque (2)

Albert Saléza (1867-1916); French tenor.
After his studies at the Conservatoire National de Paris (with Louis-Henri Obin) he made his debut in 1888 at the Opéra-Comique as Mylio in Lalo's "Le Roi d'Ys". In 1892 he debuted at the Grand Opéra Paris as Mathô in Reyer's "Salammbô" and he made guest appearances at Nice. In 1894 he sang at the Grand Opéra the première of Lefebvre's "Djelma" and the first Paris performance of Verdi's "Otello". At Monte Carlo in 1894 he created the role of Elolf in the première of César Franck's posthumous "Hulda" and sang in Berlioz's "La damnation de Faust". He made his Covent Garden and Metropolitan debuts in 1898 in Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" and sang Rodolfo at the first Metropolitan performance of "La Boheme" in 1900. In 1898 at Covent Garden he created Leandro in Mancinelli's "Ero et Leandro". In 1907 at Monte Carlo he created Frédéric in the première of Bruneau's "Naïs Micoulin". His repertory included Siegmund, Tannhäuser, Faust, Raoul, Edgardo (Lucia de Lammermoor), Jean de Leyde, Masaniello and The Duke of Mantua. He made a final appearance at the Opéra-Comique in 1910 as Don José in "Carmen". There are no gramophone records of his voice, but only fragments of opera scenes on Mapleson cylinders, recorded during performances at the New York Metropolitan Opera. There is also a Bettini cylinder from 1899 where he sings from "Lucia di Lammermoor" the aria "Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali": www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPxSm2_NNMM

On the photo he is seen as Otello in Verdi's eponymous opera. In 1894 he sang the Paris première of Otello in a French version by Arrigo Boito and Camille du Locle.