José Luccioni was born on October 14th, 1903 at Bastia. Luccioni went to Paris to study music in 1927 after the
Marietti brothers heard his natural qualities. The Marietti brothers were directors of one the largest French musical
publishing houses. Luccioni may have had a natural voice, but his musical schooling was nonexistent. He knew no solfeggio.
Luccioni learnt from recordings: arias from La favorite, L'Africaine, Sigurd, etc. Luccioni then studied singing and
solfeggio with Bournonville. His next teacher was the tenore di grazia Léon David. With David, Luccioni studied
Iphigénie, Alceste, L'Africaine, and Carmen. Luccioni took also lessons from Escalaïs. Already in 1929,
Luccioni sang at private concerts in Paris and the province and in nightclubs to make ends meet. In 1930, in spite of the
opposition of Bournonville, Luccioni took part in the conservatory opera vocal competition. He sang Matho's aria from
Salammbô in front a jury composed of Lucienne Bréval, Gheusi, Schneider, etc. Luccioni received a second prize
because of the opposition by Gheusi and Schneider. They found that he had too much voice. As we can see this trend of
liking tenors with no voice is not new. However Jacques Rouché liked what he heard and offered him a contract in
October 1930 for 714 Francs per month at the Opéra. During his first year, Luccioni sang utility roles, while
learning his trade at the same time by hearing all the great tenors of the time. Luccioni made his debut on January 6th,
1931 in the creation of Virginie by Bruneau. Jobin was also singing that evening. Luccioni was asked more and more often to
take part in galas and concerts. At Christmas 1931, Luccioni was in Limoges at the Lutetia with Cambon. While being at the
Opéra, Luccioni continued his studies at the conservatory. Luccioni received a second prize in the
Opéra-Comique and a first prize in the Opéra (Otello, act 3) vocal competitions.
Luccioni sang his first major role, Canio, on October 7th, 1931 in Asnières with Size as Tonio. On October 21st, he
was in Rouen at the Théâtre des Arts singing Cavaradossi, receiving 500 Francs for the evening. Due to his
immense success, Luccioni signed immediately a new contract for 750 Francs, his monthly salary at the Opéra, per
performance. Luccioni came back to Rouen in November to sing Tosca, Pagliacci, and then Carmen in December. After that,
Luccioni sang in several French cities, including Amiens and Marseille.
At the Opéra, on December 22nd, 1932, Luccioni sang Canio with Pernet, Cambon, Gilles and Busser. His success was
tremendous. The Opéra continued to employ him in secondary parts – Elektra: Serviteur, Un jardin sur l'Oronte:
Serviteur, Alceste: Choryphée, Rosenkavalier: Italienischer Sänger, Guillaume Tell: Ruodi (with O'Sullivan),
Otello: Roderigo (with Franz). Luccioni continued to sing outside Paris at Dijon, Marseille, Enghien etc ... In October,
Luccioni sang the Duke at Argenteuil with Nougaro as Rigoletto while the Opéra gave him Hérodiade. At the
Opéra on December 16th, Luccioni sang Enée. At Angers, Luccioni sang his only Attaque du Moulin. On January
13th, Luccioni replaced Thill in Esclarmonde. Luccioni traveled more and more throughout France:
Rouen (Carmen), Nice (Tosca, Carmen, Rigoletto), Montpellier (Hérodiade, replacing Thill).
In summer 1933, Luccioni sang Radames with Formichi and Cigna at the Opéra. On July 15th, he was in Vichy, then went
to the south of France. Luccioni crossed the borders and went to sing in Geneva (Werther), and Liège (Aida). At the
Opéra-Comique, he sang Carmen on November 18th. He alternated singing Canio between the Opéra and the
Opéra-Comique. On December 20th, Luccioni had his first success in Bordeaux as Werther. In 1934, he made his debut
in Monte-Carlo as Roméo with Renaux and Beckmans, then Hérodiade and Carmen with Supervia. For his debut as
Dmitrij, Luccioni was partnered by the clownish Shaljapin, which was followed by La damnation de Faust, Le marchand de
Venise, etc. On August 2nd, Luccioni sang Béatrice at Vichy, then went to Castel-Guyon for Cavalleria rusticana.
Luccioni was very busy for the rest of 1934, including his first Sigurd at the Opéra.
In 1935, Luccioni made his debut at the Liceu in Tosca (January 3rd) with Franci and Jacobo. He went to Algiers and Oran,
where he sang Andrea Chénier with Noël on January 31st. On June 19th, Luccioni reappeared at the Opéra
singing in Der Rosenkavalier with Lubin, Huberty, and Campredon. He made also his debut at Covent Garden in Carmen with
Supervia.
After singing, in late 1935, in Paris (Sigurd, Tosca), Lyon (Samson), and Tunis (Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci), Luccioni
arrived in Rome on January 9th, 1936. There he created the role of Cyrano de Bergerac on January 22nd. In Monte-Carlo, he
sang in Le lys d'or by Kraüsz. During the summer, Luccioni sailed to South America to sing at the Colón. He
finished 1936 by singing in Strasbourg, Amsterdam, and Paris. Early in 1937, he was in Monte-Carlo (Manon Lescaut),
Liège (Werther), then back to Rome (Carmen with Franci, Pederzini and Albanese). In Verona, Luccioni sang in
Turandot with Cigna and Favero. In October, he was in Antwerp, Paris, Toulouse, and Bordeaux. On November 13th, Luccioni
sang Carmen in Chicago. It was followed by L'amore dei tre re, Pagliacci... Luccioni was in discussion to appear at the Met
during 1939/40 in Roméo, Carmen, Samson, Chénier, Turandot, but that was not to be. In 1937, Luccioni was
again in Rome to sing I cavalieri di Ekebù with Franci, Taddei, and Tassinari. In early 1938, Luccioni was scheduled
to sing both Siegfrieds in Rome, but that did not happen. In Monte-Carlo, he sang in Les contes d'Andersen (by Gunsbourg),
Tosca, and Manon. At Paris, Luccioni sang in Samson, Carmen, Cavalleria rusticana, Salammbô. In June 1938, Luccioni
sang the Berlioz Requiem in Paris (Cour des Invalides). It is at that time that Thill was singing less and less in opera,
saving himself for the less difficult task of concert singing. Years of singing inadequate repertory (Arnold, Lohengrin,
Radames, Tannhäuser...) had taken their toll on Thill's voice. In 1939, Luccioni appeared in Paris, Toulouse,
Monte-Carlo (Madama Butterfly, Carmen), London (Turandot), Vichy (Messaline)... then the war started. During the war,
Luccioni had a great deal of activity:
1940 Bastia (Gala), Toulon (Werther, Bohème), Paris (Werther, Aida, Roméo), Algiers, Marseille, Bordeaux
(Samson).
1942 Oran, Vichy, Paris.
1943 Otello at the Opéra (first on May 8th), Monte-Carlo.
1944 Paris, Bordeaux.
1945 Paris (Faust), Bordeaux (Faust, Chénier).
In 1946, Luccioni sang La bohème in Paris, then recorded the complete Samson et Dalila. This is still the only
acceptable recorded version of the piece. Thank God, his Otello, Radames and Don José are available in radio
recordings. On December 1st, Luccioni sang in La damnation de Faust at the Concerts Colonnes with Vallin and Pernet.
Luccioni left the Opéra on May 12th, 1947 after problems with the new management. He sang a concert at Paris at
the Palais Chaillot on May 12th, 1947. During January 1948, Luccioni recorded his extraordinary excerpts from Otello. In
1948, Luccioni appeared also in the movie Colomba with music by Vincent Scotto. In 1949, Luccioni sang Otello in
Florence. Luccioni appeared less and less in Paris: La bohème, act 1 at the Théâtre Mogador, and a
concert dedicated to the memory of General Leclerc. If Luccioni was very rarely singing in Paris, he sang all over the
provinces, while being the director of the Nice Opera House. He sang L'Africaine for the first time in February
1949 in Nice. Finally on December 7th, Luccioni reappeared at the Opéra in Otello, then at the Opéra-Comique
in Carmen. In 1952, Luccioni sang Otello in Paris with Crespin; Sigurd in Nice with Crespin and Massard. Roles that he
sang at that time included Cavaradossi, Roméo, Otello, Samson, Vasco, and Rodolfo. On March 6th, 1953 Luccioni had
to replace the vocally small-sized Björling at the Opéra as Roméo after singing Tosca the previous
night. Luccioni also replaced the basso Vinay as Otello at the Opéra. In 1953, Luccioni sang Dmitrij again,
to the Boris of Christoff. On June 11th, Thill gave his farewell to the Opéra-Comique as Canio, and Luccioni sang
Turriddu during the first part of the evening. On October 14th, Luccioni sang Carmen for his 50th birthday at Paris.
Luccioni continued to appear regularly at the Opéra-Comique (Tosca, Carmen, Pagliacci) ands Opéra (Aida,
Otello, Samson). In March 1955, Luccioni sang Chénier at Rouen. Luccioni remained very active until
the early 1960s:
Werther (1955, Paris; Mans), Pagliacci (Paris), Cavalleria rusticana (Paris), Aida (Paris, Rouen), Otello (Paris, Rouen),
Samson (Paris, Rouen, Geneva), Tosca (Paris), L'Africaine (Rouen), Hérodiade (Lille), Salome (Paris).
Unfortunately, arthritis that Luccioni had been suffering from for years forced him to stop singing. In October 1963,
Luccioni was near death, but he escaped – and never sang again. In 1970, his voice being as good as ever, there were plans to record it, but it came to
nothing. Because of his illness, Luccioni could only walk with crutches, there were plans to have him sing Otello at the Opéra
in a special staging. But that also never happened. Luccioni was a great admirer of John O'Sullivan, and was offended when no one took
notice in 1955 when O'Sullivan died.
Luccioni died in Marseille on October 5th, 1978.