Isidore Osselly

He was, after singing "a brilliant season" in Verviers the winter before and a spring season in Chalon-sur-Saône, still very young when appearing as Rodolfo, Léopold, Gérald and Duca di Mantova in Dijon in October 1908, where he was perceived as less brilliant, though; in Rigoletto, his rendition of "Comme la plume au vent" (or La donna è mobile) was met with total silence and no applause at all. A local critic described his voice as small and narrow, but endowed with a good top. His lack of volume was later chided by several newspapers, his timbre was also called white, nasal and not exactly beautiful. In November and December 1908, he sang in Faust, Mireille and Le jongleur de Notre-Dame in Dunkerque. In December, he also replaced an indisposed colleague as Massenet's des Grieux in Amiens – and was a failure.

The season 1909/10 found him in Le Havre, where he was mostly successful; he sang Roméo, Rodolfo, Shakespeare (Le songe d'une nuit d'été), Jean (Le jongleur de Notre-Dame, Alfredo, Vincent, Edgardo, Georges Brown, Faust, Canio (!), Nadir, Gérald or Hoffmann.

In January 1911, Osselly was in Auray for Mireille. In spring, he had a contract at the Gaîté-Lyrique in Paris, where he sang Almaviva and Georges Brown, for instance. During that season, he appeared also in Gent and Narbonne. In summer 1911, he was Don José and Cavaradossi at the casino in tiny Wimereux. In October of the same year, he jumped in for Maurice Bensa as des Grieux in Reims. In November, Osselly sang Rodriguez (Don Quichotte) and Vincent in Nancy, where he hoped to get a contract, but he didn't please.

In early 1912, he appeared in Saint-Quentin as Massenet's des Grieux and as Gérald; in March, in Troyes as the title character in Barbe-Bleue; in April, in Fontainebleau as Gounod's Faust; in November, as des Grieux in Saint-Quentin again. In March 1913, he was in Saint-Quentin once more, as Don José this time; and in August, he participated in an operatic concert at the casino of Saint-Lunaire.

After that, further notes on Osselly are completely missing, and you'd get the impression that his career was over. Then, all of a sudden and just for once, he resurfaces in January 1920 in Namur (in Belgium, which was obviously his native country), where he sang in a series of privately organized performances: des Grieux, Cavaradossi, Duca and Faust.

References:
- L'Abeille de Fontainebleau, 12 April 1912
- Comoedia, 19 October 1907, 23 December 1907, 11 February 1908, 3 & 16 December 1908, 21 & 29 October 1909, 27 November 1909, 2 December 1909, 3, 8, 14 & 19 January 1910, 2, 19 & 24 February 1910, 27 April 1911, 30 August 1911, 5 August 1913, 22 January 1920
- Courrier de Saône-et-Loire, 5 April 1908
- L'Est Républicain, 12 & 13 November 1911
- Le Guetteur de Saint-Quentin et de l'Aisne, 14 January 1912, 16 February 1912, 10 & 12 November 1912
- L'Indépendant Rémois, 28 October 1911
- Journal de la ville de Saint-Quentin et de l'arrondissement, 9 & 11 March 1913
- Le Midi Socialiste, 16 May 1911
- Le Monde Artiste, 22 April 1911
- Le Nouvelliste du Morbihan, 8 & 10 January 1911
- Le Petit Bourguignon, 10, 15, 17 & 19 October 1908
- Le Progrès de la Côte-d'Or, 13, 17 & 20 October 1908, 7 November 1908
- Le Progrès de la Somme, 2 December 1908
- La Tribune de l'Aube, 21 March 1912

I want to thank Georges Cardol for the picture.