Victor Maurel by Nadar

Victor Maurel (1848-1923); French baritone who created Iago in Verdi's "Otello" (1887) and Sir John Falstaff in Verdi's "Falstaff" (1893).
He studied singing at the conservatories of Marseille and Paris, where he was a pupil of Vauthrot and Duvernoy. He made his debut in 1867 in Marseille as Wilhelm Tell in Rossini's eponymous opera. He was then in 1868 at the Grand Opéra Paris (debut as Count Luna in "Il Trovatore" and as Nevers in "Les Huguenots). Then guest performances in St. Petersburg, Cairo, and Venice. In 1870 at La Scala Milan he created the role of Il Cacico in the premiere of "Il Guarany" by Carlos Gomes. In 1873 he created the role of Cambro in "Fosca", another world premiere of this Brazilian composer. He became famous as a Verdi interpreter. The maestro himself gave him at the Italian premiere of his opera "Don Carlos" in 1871 "at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples the part of Posa. He had great success in London's Covent Garden Opera, where he appeared 1873/79, 1891/95 and 1904. In 1873 he performed for the first time in North America and sang Amonasro in the American premiere of Verdi 's "Aida" at the Academy of Music in New York. At the age of 25 he had become practically the most important baritone for the Italian repertoire of his generation. Over the following three decades, he hurried to the major opera houses throughout the world from triumph to triumph. The focus of his artistic activities formed the La Scala Milan, the Grand Opéra Paris (1879/94) and the New York Metropolitan Opera, where he was engaged from 1894 to 1899. Moreover he made guest appearances in London, Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Cairo, Naples, St. Petersburg and Moscow.In 1892 he created at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan in the world premiere of Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" the role of Tonio. Because this role did not contain a single aria, Leoncavallo transfered the prologue -which originally was for Canio- to Tonio. Only under this condition the famous singer was willing to accept the role. In 1897 at Monte Carlo he sang at the première of De Lara's opera "Moïna". In 1900 he created in Paris the role of Mathias in Erlanger's "Le Juif Polonais". In 1904 Maurel decided to end his triumphant career on the stage. He then lived as a teacher in Paris and since 1909 in New York City.

On the photo he is seen as ...........................................