Michel Roux

Who was Michel Roux?

Michel Roux was a French baritone, an established principal at the Paris Opéra who also enjoyed an international career. He was born in Angoulême on 1 September 1924 and died in Paris on 4 February 1998.

Roux studied at the Bordeaux Conservatoire and in Paris, making his operatic debut on 5 October 1949 in Lakmé at the Opéra-Comique, going on to sing in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Manon and Pelléas and Mélisande, creating l'Aveugle in Madame Bovary in 1951, and remaining a principal singer there until 1955.

His debut at La Scala came in 1953 as Golaud, a role that became central to his repertory. From 1956 to 1970 Roux sang annually at Glyndebourne, making his debut as Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. His American debut was at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1959; he also appeared at the Vienna Staatsoper and the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, as well as in Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon.

Roux was known as an intelligent singer and a vivid stage actor. During the 1950s he appeared in a series of comic French films directed by Julien Duvivier and in later life he taught at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.