He was well-known and well-liked in France, he had a career of almost 30 years, and an enormous repertory; and yet he is so completely
forgotten that it seems impossible to find his dates of birth and death, and his biography has never been written so far. Léon Marcel
was a Swiss tenor, a student of baritone Robert Marchal. Marcel had been born in Geneva, where he also started his career: in November 1915,
he participated in an operatic concert at the Victoria Hall. He sang opera in Algiers in 1916/17 and went on to Tunis and Monte Carlo; in
the 1919/20 season, he was at the Grand-Théâtre in his native Geneva.
Otherwise, he sang primarily in France and, by the way, particularly often with soprano Maud Lambert throughout his career; at some point,
Maud Lambert became his wife. In winter 1918/19, the two were very successful in the revue À la riche by Antonin Bossy at
the Variétés-Casino in Marseille. On 6 September 1919 at the Casino Marie-Christine in Le Havre, Marcel helped premiere an
opéra-comique by Georges George, Le brebis de Panurge; and he also sang another work by the same composer there, L'elizir
de maître Eloi. In November, he was part of a vaudeville show at the Olympia in Paris. In March 1920, he appeared in Roubaix
(probably as Vincent); in November of the same year, at the Casino de la Jetée-Promenade in Nice, he was on the roster of La
mascotte. In February 1921 in Nice, he sang Vincent at the Casino Municipal and appeared in Hervé's Mam'zelle Nitouche at
the Jetée-Promenade. In the 1922/23 season, he was a member of the Théâtre Massenet in Saint-Étienne. He returned
to Nice in summer 1923, singing at a waterside venue called "Palais sur les flots", then again in fall of that year for an operetta season,
and on 26 February 1924, he took part in the world premiere of Vincent Puget's operetta Gladys at the Jetée-Promenade.
In summer 1925, he appeared first at the casino in Mont-Dore with the operetta troupe of the Palais d'Hiver in Pau; and after that, in
Die keusche Susanne and Le Sire de Vergy (by Claude Terrasse) in Dieppe. In 1925/26, he was a member of the
Théâtre Municipal in Bayonne, singing Vincent, for instance. In Pau in March 1927, he appeared in Das Dreimäderlhaus as
well as in Faust. In May 1927, he was back to Bayonne for Marouf, and once again towards the end of the year, as a member of
an operetta troupe that staged, for instance, Flup by Joseph Szulc. January 1930 found him in Toulouse to sing Grenicheux in Les
cloches de Corneville at the Théâtre des Variétés.
In Paris, he was first tenor of the Trianon-Lyrique when singing Edwin in the French premiere of Kálmán's
Csárdásfürstin (Princesse Czardas) on 12 March 1930. He repeated that work at the Casino Municipal in Nice in
December 1931, together with his wife. At the Trianon-Lyrique, Léon Marcel also sang two operetta world premieres: on 22 December
1930 Mariska by Mario Cazes, and on 31 March 1931 Prince Chéri by Lionel Renieu. Before coming to Paris in March
1931, he had appeared in Das Dreimäderlhaus at the Théâtre de l'Union in Amiens. In April 1932 at the Casino de la
Jetée-Promenade in Nice, he took part in the French premiere of the operetta Scugnizza by Mario Costa. In December 1932, he
was in Angers for Les dragons de Villars and Mireille, the same month in Amiens for Le chalet, and in January and
February 1933 in Amiens again for Die lustige Witwe and Les mousquetaires au couvent, respectively, and in May in Laval for
Le chalet.
At the Gaîté-Lyrique in Paris, a production of Das Land des Lächelns, in French translation of course, had
unprecedented success in July 1933: each performance completely sold out, that was unheard of in July in Paris. Marcel was Sou-Chong, and
he sang "Je t'ai donné mon coeur" four times each evening (three encores, that is!). He had already had great success in that role in
Angers a few months earlier, in March.
From 1932 to 1935, he was very regularly in Tours, singing Almaviva, Alfredo, Camille de Rosillon, Grenicheux (Les cloches de
Corneville), Piquillo (La Périchole), Don José (!), Sylvain (Les dragons de Villars), Tonio (La fille du
régiment), Montschi (Walzertraum, a baritone role), Tybalt, Franz von Schober (Das Dreimäderlhaus), Puycardas
(Miss Helyett), Toinet (Le chemineau by Xavier Leroux), Olivier (Gillette de Narbonne by Audran), Gounod's Faust,
Frantz (La cigale et la fourmi by Audran), Cornélius (La tulipe noire by Tiarko Richepin), Zéphoris (Si
j'étais roi), Armand (Gladys), Fritellini (La mascotte), Vincent, Sou-Chong, Ange Pitou (La
fille de Madame Angot), Gontran (Les mousquetaires au couvent), Leuthold (Guillaume Tell), Molyneux (Monsieur
Beaucaire by Messager), René (Enlevez-moi by Gaston Gabaroche), Mergy (Le Pré-aux-Clercs by Hérold),
Dieuleveut (Libellentanz, one of Lehár's least successful operettas), Coucy (Le Sire de Vergy by Claude Terrasse),
Pâris, Pinkerton, Gaussin (Sapho by Massenet), Wilhelm Meister, Jack Haines (Nina Rosa by Sigmund Romberg), Antonin
(Ciboulette by Reynaldo Hahn), Yoris (Hans le joueur de flûte by Ganne) and Edwin. What an incredibly wide repertory!
January 1934 found him in Angers, singing Nadir; June of the same year in Chalon-sur-Saône in Ganne's Les saltimbanques; and in
July, he was in Boulogne-sur-Mer to sing Almaviva and Edwin. In winter 1935/36, he was a member of the troupe at the Théâtre
Municipal in Oran. In summer 1936, he returned to his native Geneva and sang Ange Pitou (La fille de Madame Angot) at the Kursaal.
October 1935, Lyon, Marcel starred at the Théâtre Villeurbanne in La fille de Madame Angot. In 1936 and 1937, he sang a
lot of operetta in Dijon, plus also Nicias in December 1936. Each year from 1936 to 1939, he sang a January operetta season in Bayonne. He
was time and again also in Cherbourg, for instance as Almaviva, as Alfredo, and in March 1937 as Wilhelm Meister. On 10 February 1938 in
Dijon, he sang Léopold in a performance that starred Fernand Faniard as
Éléazar. In October of the same year, he was in Troyes to sing Sou-Chong, and in December in Marseille for another
Csárdásfürstin at the Gymnase. In March 1939, another trip to Amiens for another Mousquetaires au couvent.
At the end of 1939, he appeared in La fille du tambour-major in Nantes, and in January 1940, he was Alfredo in Rennes to Vina Bovy's
Violetta. He went back to Nantes for Le voyage en Chine by Bazin, and eventually on to Lorient to sing operetta: La mascotte,
Les saltimbanques and Walzertraum.
Not least, Marcel wrote the librettos to two operettas by the composer duo René Rungis and Félicien Meurice: La lampe
magique and L'oiseau blanc; the latter was premiered in Pau in June 1943, Marcel himself participating also as a singer. In those
years, he showed up regularly in Pau, where Maud Lambert, his wife, had become a voice professor at the local music academy.
Léon Marcel was still alive in 1963: the National Library of France owns a private 33rpm disc that he recorded for a friend that
year.
Picture source: Forgotten Opera Singers
References:
- Opéra de Tours archives
- Encyclopédie multimédia de la comédie musicale théâtrale
en France
- Bibliothèque national de France
- Aux Écoutes, 3 January 1931
- La Bourgogne Républicaine, 19 October 1937 & 10 February 1938
- Comoedia, 17 November 1920, 9 February 1921, 25 April 1932, 20 March 1933, 24 July 1934 & 27 August 1936
- La Côte Basque, 8 & 22 November 1925 & 4 April 1926
- Courrier de Saône-et-Loire, 10 June 1934
- La Dépêche, 5 January 1930
- L'Écho d'Alger, 9 January 1917
- Le Figaro, 2 April 1931
- La France Libre, 1 November 1919
- La Gazette de Biarritz, Bayonne et Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 5 May & 2 December 1927, 6 January 1939
- Gazette de Lausanne, 30 June 1916
- L'Impartial Français, 2 June & 20 October 1923
- L'Indépendent des Basses-Pyrénées, 19 June 1926, 15 June 1943 & 14 April 1944
- Journal de Genève, 27 November 1915
- Journal de Roubaix, 25 March 1920
- Lyon républicain, 9 October 1935
- Le Matin, 5 July 1933
- La Mayenne, 13 May 1933
- Mémorial de la Loire et de la Haute-Loire, 17 January 1923
- The Menton & Monte Carlo News, 12 December 1931
- Le Miroir de la Côte d'Azur, 25 February 1921
- Le Nouvelliste du Morbihan, 29 December 1939 & 27 March 1940
- L'Ouest-Éclair, 17 January 1934, 12 March 1937 & 12 January 1940
- Pau-Pyrénées, 26 March 1927
- Le Petit Courrier, 11 & 16 December 1932
- Le Petit Havre, 3 & 6 September 1919
- Le Petit Marseillais, 14 January 1919, 6 April 1931 & 25 December 1938
- Le Petit Oranais, 2 October 1935
- Le Petit Provençal, 28 November 1918
- Le Phare de la Loire, 10 March 1940
- Le Progrès de la Côte-d'Or, 17 December 1936 & 3 January 1937
- Le Progrès de la Somme, 20 March 1931, 15 December 1932, 11 January & 24 February 1933, 2 March 1939
- Rouen Gazette, 8 August 1925
- La Tribune de l’Aube, 12 October 1938
- La Vigie de Dieppe, 25 August 1925
