Gabriel Bacquier, nicknamed the "Raimu" of opera, passed away on May 13, 2020, a few days before his 96th birthday. One of the last "giants" of the opera world, he was one of the rare French singers of his generation to pursue a career both in his native land and internationally.
After graduating from the Paris Conservatoire in 1950 with a first prize in singing and a second prize in opera and opéra-comique, Gabriel Bacquier gained experience with the troupes of the Nice Opera and La Monnaie in Brussels, after a stint in cabaret at Montmartre. In 1956 he joined the Réunion des Théâtres Lyriques Nationaux, which combined the Opéra-Comique and the Paris Opera, and made his operatic debut in the title role of Rigoletto, replacing an ailing singer at short notice before making his official debut in 1958 in La Traviata (Germont). His international career took off when Gabriel Dussurget invited him in 1960 to the Aix-en-Provence Festival to perform the title role in Don Giovanni, broadcast on Eurovision in front of several thousand European viewers. The same year, he played Scarpia alongside Renata Tebaldi's Tosca at the Paris Opera. Gabriel Bacquier was one of the greatest French singers of the post-war period and also one of the few to lead an international career at that time. His career took him to the Metropolitan Opera in New York (where he was a regular guest for 18 years), London's Royal Opera House, La Scala Milan, the Vienna Staatsoper...
His acting skills combined with his vocal talents and a remarkable feel for prosody enabled him to tackle a vast repertoire, both dramatic and comic. The Paris Opera was one of his favourite stages. In particular he played Count Almaviva in Giorgio Strehler's legendary production of Le Nozze di Figaro, which inaugurated Rolf Liebermann's mandate in 1973, first at Versailles' Opéra Royal and then at the Palais Garnier.
The Paris Opera subsequently offered him roles as varied as Iago in Otello, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, Fra Melitone in La Forza del destino, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande, Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Sancho in Don Quichotte, Dulcamara in L'Elisir d'amore (alongside Luciano Pavarotti) and Gianni Schicchi, the role in which made his last appearance on Paris' national stage in 1987. Gabriel Bacquier ended his career in June 1994 after a performance of Don Pasquale at the Opéra Comique, the venue where he had made his Parisian debut.