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Roger Soyer (born 1 September 1939) is a French operatic bass-baritone, particularly associated with the French repertory and with Mozart.
Soyer was born in Thiais, and first studied privately with G. Daum, before entering the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 19. There he was a pupil of Georges Jouatte and Louis Musy. He made his professional debut at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1962, creating the role of Mac Creag in Gilbert Bécaud's opera L'opéra d'Aran.
He sang on French Radio in 1964, in Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie , and made his debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1965, as Pluton in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo . The same year he made his debut at the Opéra-Comique, as Colline, in La Bohème , and at the Palais Garnier, as Mephisto in Gounod's Faust .
On the international scene, he appeared at the Wexford Festival in La jolie fille de Perth , and at the Edinburgh Festival as Don Giovanni , a role he became closely associated with, singing it at Aix-en-Provence, Munich, Vienna, Florence, Chicago, New York.
Other notable roles include; Ferrando in Il trovatore , Procida in Les vêpres siciliennes , Titurel in Parsifal , Rangoni in Boris Godunov , Pope Clement in Benvenuto Cellini , Achis in David et Jonathas, Narbal in Les Troyens, etc.
Soyer has a beautiful and smoothly produced voice. His numerous recordings (operatic and otherwise) include performances of the following four French operas: Lakmé , opposite Mady Mesplé and Charles Burles, under Alain Lombard; Werther , opposite Victoria de los Angeles and Nicolai Gedda, under Georges Prêtre; Benvenuto Cellini , opposite Gedda and Robert Massard, under Sir Colin Davis; and Les Troyens , opposite Jon Vickers and Josephine Veasey, also under Sir Colin Davis.
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Sir Colin Rex Davis was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom he was particularly associated were Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett.
Benvenuto Cellini is an opera semiseria in four tableaux by Hector Berlioz, his first full-length work for the stage. Premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique on 10 September 1838, it is a setting of a libretto by Léon de Wailly and Henri Auguste Barbier, who invented most of the plot inspired by the memoirs of the Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. The opera is technically challenging and was until the 21st century rarely performed. But its overture sometimes features in orchestral concerts, as does the concert overture Le carnaval romain which Berlioz composed from material in the opera.
Victoria de los Ángeles López García was a Catalan Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s.
Harry Gustaf Nikolai Gädda, better known as Nicolai Gedda, was a Swedish operatic tenor. Debuting in 1951, Gedda had a long and successful career in opera until the age of 77 in June 2003, when he made his final operatic recording. Skilled at languages, he performed operas in French, Russian, German, Italian, English, Czech and Swedish, as well as one in Latin. In January 1958, he created the part of Anatol in the world premiere of the American opera Vanessa at the Metropolitan Opera. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is one of the most widely recorded opera singers in history. His singing is best known for its beauty of tone, vocal control, and musical perception.
Jonathan Stewart Vickers,, known professionally as Jon Vickers, was a Canadian heldentenor.
Léopold Simoneau, was a French-Canadian lyric tenor, one of the outstanding Mozarteans of his time. In 1959 he became the first recipient of the Calixa-Lavallée Award.
John Wilton Nelson is an American conductor. His parents were Protestant missionaries.
Laura Claycomb is an American lyric coloratura soprano singer.
Robert Massard is a French baritone, primarily associated with the French repertory. He is one of a number of outstanding French opera singers of the postwar era.
Josephine Veasey CBE was a British mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with Wagner and Berlioz roles.
Jane Berbié is a French mezzo-soprano particularly associated with Mozart and Rossini roles.
French composer Hector Berlioz wrote a number of "overtures", many of which have become popular concert works. They include true overtures, intended to introduce operas, but also independent concert overtures that are in effect the first orchestral tone poems.
Alain Vanzo was a French opera singer and composer, one of few French tenors of international standing in the postwar era. He, along with such singers as Henri Legay and the Canadian Léopold Simoneau, represented a traditional French lyric style during a period when larger Italian and German vocal styles had become popular.
Jules Bastin was a Belgian operatic bass who excelled in both serious and comic roles, and left several recordings.
Christiane Eda-Pierre was a French coloratura soprano of Martinican origin, who sang in a wide variety of roles, from baroque to contemporary works.
Gregory Kunde is an American operatic tenor particularly associated with the French and Italian repertoires.
Ernest Blanc was a French opera singer, one of the leading baritones of his era in France.
Peter Mattei is a Swedish operatic baritone, particularly known for his performances in Mozart's baritone roles.
Michael Spyres is an American operatic baritenor. He is particularly associated with the bel canto repertoire, especially the works of Rossini, and heroic roles in French grand opera.
Claude Méloni is a French baritone of the Paris Opera.
