Guillaume Ibos

Ibos grew up near Toulouse. During his childhood until he entered high school, he only spoke the dialect of Toulouse. (Actually not a dialect, but a completely distinct language: Occitan.)

His musical abilities were discovered early and his father entrusted him to an old friend who was a music teacher in the Toulouse school district. He studied with the son of the teacher, who was Paul Vidal and became a well-known composer and conductor.

He was drafted and ended his military career as second lieutenant. One day he was sitting in a café near the Théâtre du Capitole, where he was introduced to Labadou. Labadou had a great bass voice, was tall (1.80 meter), presented well but was completely illiterate. He learned only one role, the Night Watchman in Les huguenots because he had only one sentence to sing (Dormez, habitants de Paris, tenez-vous clos en vos logis!). Nobody could teach him to sing, walk and swing his lantern at the same time. He could only sing when he stood still. He was a favorite in the theater where he was encouraged by the audience who were yelling À toi, Labadou! before his entrance.

Labadou invited Ibos to his home to sing. After hearing him, Labadou told him he would introduce him to Merli (also Merly), one of the greatest French singers, singing bass, baritone and tenor roles. Apparently when Labadou sang for the first time for Merli, he sang a note that nobody could find on a piano (Labadou stated Aï foutut uno noto ... quéll'an pas troubat su'l piano!).

When Ibos was introduced to Merli by Labadou, Gallet, the composer of the opera Burkar that was just created in Toulouse with Merli, had a big problem: his tenor had left for Paris. He convinced Ibos to sing the second perfomance of the opera. In spite of never having taken a singing lesson, he sang in the opera using the name Sobi, apparently taking his aria a third too high.

Ibos was accepted by the Paris conservatory. He had two teachers: Archaimbault, a former baritone who could not explain anything except that starting with F all sounds must be closed, and for acting Obin, a former bass, who always said that starting with F all sounds must be opened. As nothing was really explained, Ibos finished the conservatory with a whole lot of unanswered questions.

While at the conservatory, Ambroise Thomas chose Ibos to sing Die Schöpfung by Haydn with Faure. Faure told Ibos that he had the voice to sing Sigurd. At the Concerts Colonne, he sang excerpts from Sigurd with Faure, and received 50 Francs for it. This was a premiere for Paris.

He was hired by the Opéra, where he made his debut as Fernand on September 21st, 1885 with Madame Richard, Gresse, Melchissédec. Apparently Gayarre was present during his debut and congratulated him after the performance with Gailhard. He was invited by Gayarre the next day for lunch. Gayarre introduced him to several Spanish people and proved to be a great help for Ibos when he started singing in Spain.

During his stay at the Opéra, he sang Don Giovanni, Henry VIII, Les huguenots, L'Africaine, La dame de Monsoreau and Rigoletto. It was in a performance of Les huguenots during the duo with Valentine that he sang the B using what he called the baillement Ibos (i.e. the Ibos yawn).

After the Opéra, he went to La Monnaie. He was part of the troupe and created Esclarmonde there. According to Ibos, due to influenza all the tenors were sick except for him, he sang thirty times in a row. He then left for Russia (singing there most probably), where he met the director of the Berlin opera. He moved to Warsaw (singing there), then to Berlin, where he was offered a contract that he turned down, not wishing to sing in German.

In 1886, he was in San Sebastián, where he had to replace Gayarre who had refused to sing because of the attendance of the king. The audience was reluctant to accept that a beginner would replace Gayarre. Gayarre heard about it and went on stage with Ibos when it was his cue. Gayarre, as soon as the ovation that greeted him had died away, introduced Ibos as his successor.

Ibos sang at Covent Garden (not verified). He sang in Spain and Portugal: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Lisboa and Porto (some cities are not yet verified).

In Madrid, according to Ibos' book, he announced that he would sing Lucia in the original key. When he came on stage, he was greeted by diapasons dispersed all over the auditorium to verify his claim.

In Valencia, he was singing Lohengrin, but was sick. After the Gralserzählung, he was asked to repeat, but refused. The audience felt slighted as they knew that he had repeated it in Madrid and Barcelona. Thinking Ibos was insulting them, a chaos ensued, the curtain was closed. Ibos had to go back to the hotel with the police chief and in disguise. Finding out that he left the theater, the mob went to his hotel, and the army was called in to maintain order.

It seems that, if Ibos' book is to be believed, he sang a lot more in Spain than was found.

Ibos created Werther in Paris in 1893 at the Opéra-Comique with Bouvet and Delna. Up to that point Werther had been a fiasco. After singing the first run, he left for Russia where he sang for three months. He predicted to Delna that she would lose her voice due to her technique.

In 1897, he went on tour to the USA with the Damrosch-Ellis Opera Company singing with, among others, Melba and Boudouresque. He had problems with Melba who did not like other people having success when she was singing with them, and refused to have his contract extended. On the way back to France, he missed his boat Le Bourgogne, which sank with almost everybody on board after hitting an iceberg. This incident convinced him not to cross the Atlantic again. This explains why he never sang in South America or Mexico.

He sang once at La Scala, in 1904 in Rigoletto, where he had to fight the anti-foreigner claque led by Stagno's friend. He had to repeat La donna è mobile and the quartet with Toresella and Ruffo.

He ended his career in 1914 while in Russia.

A lot is still unknown about him, especially in Russia and Spain, but also his appearances in Gent.

Ibos was an outstanding tenor. He was over sixty (not true as he was not yet fifty) and his face was lined, but his voice was so vigorous and young that the eyes and the ears received a different impression. With superb control, he impressed as a vocalist.
The Levik memoirs: an opera singer's notes

Le Petit Niçois lists both 2 and 4 December as the date of the first performance of Carmen, while 6 December is listed as the date of the second performance. The performance of 2 December was probably cancelled.

Ibos repeated both Questa o quella and La donna è mobile. He did it in Italian, which displeased the reviewer of Le Petit Niçois, who insisted on singing in French because the Italian disfigured Rigoletto. De Treville and Albers repeated Sì vendetta. The reviewer of Le Phare du Litoral praised the encores for being sung in Italian.

Ibos sang only the rehearsal, fell ill and Lohengrin on 23 April was substituted by Mefistofele.

Ibos repeated La donna è mobile.

Varsavia, 22. - Africana, Rigoletto concorso Borelli, Ibos, Kashman, Arnoldson successi colossali. Ibos proclamato artista incomparabile voce, canto, azione. Avvenimento artistico. - Sliwki
Rivista Teatrale Melodrammatica, 23 February 1897

I wish to thank Juan Dzazópulos for the Spain and Portugal data.

I wish to thank Jaume Tribó for the Liceu data.

nameless cylinder, about 1900
112	Paul et Virginie (Massé): Quand l'oiseau chante
	I heard this cylinder over 30 years ago. I remember that Ibos introduced himself.
	The owner of this cylinder unfortunately died at the beginning of summer 2001.

Unpublished Gaumont discs, Paris 1908?
?	L'Africaine (Meyerbeer): Ô paradis
?	Carmen (Bizet): La fleur
?	Roméo et Juliette (Gounod): Ah, lève-toi soleil
?	Tosca (Puccini): E lucevan le stelle
?	Werther (Massenet): Pourquoi me réveiller
	dubbed on AFG 9A with an interview of the artist three months shy of his 88th birthday
?	Rigoletto (Verdi): La donna è mobile       
	Previously only the second verse of the aria was on the site. The reason was that the 
	original record had a rim chip.	Now thanks to existing technology, it is possible to 
	hear this unique record.

Edison test cylinder, Paris, 1913
44677	Rigoletto: La donna è mobile, unpublished