Article

Caro Lamoureux

Published Online July 30, 2007

Last Edited December 15, 2013

Caro (Marie Julienne Pauline Caroline) Lamoureux. Soprano, b Montreal 3 Jan 1904, d there 11 Aug 1998. She studied voice with Céline Marier and stage technique with Jeanne Maubourg and Albert Roberval.

Lamoureux, Caro

Caro (Marie Julienne Pauline Caroline) Lamoureux. Soprano, b Montreal 3 Jan 1904, d there 11 Aug 1998. She studied voice with Céline Marier and stage technique with Jeanne Maubourg and Albert Roberval. She made her debut at 16 in the Salle Montcalm and worked for nine years as a semi-professional, primarily singing supporting roles in operettas presented in Quebec byFrench troupes.

In 1924 she sang the title role in the premiere of Alphonse Lavallée-Smith's operetta Gisèle. In 1929 Lamoureux made her debut with the Société canadienne d'opérette in Victor Massé's Les Noces de Jeannette, replacing a colleague at the last minute, and sang Leila in Les Pêcheurs de perles. The appearances marked the beginning of a long association with this society and with the Variétés lyriques, of which she was one of the main attractions until 1946. She performed some 30 leading roles in French and Viennese operetta. In opera her numerous assignments included the title role in Mireille (1930), Nedda in I Pagliacci (1930), Baucis in Gounod's Philémon et Baucis (1931), Néméa in Adam's Si j'étais roi (1933), Rosina in The Barber of Seville (1934), and Philine in Mignon (1943), as well as Gemma in the Canadian composer J. Ulric Voyer's L'Intendant Bigot (1931).

In his review of the 1942-3 season and of Lamoureux's performance of Violetta in La Traviata, Marcel Valois wrote: 'With a voice that is fresh, precise, and supple, she sang the role with a purity of style and brought to it a feeling and character that will long be remembered' (La Presse, 20 Mar 1943).

Lamoureux sang many major roles 1930-43 on CBC radio under the direction of various conductors, including Jean-Marie Beaudet. In 1936 she was chosen the most popular classical singer in a competition organized by radio station CKAC. During the summer of 1939 she starred with Réda Caire in The Merry Widow in a series of performances in Salon, Nîmes, and Sète in the south of France. Towards the mid-1940s she began a new career as a florist in Montreal.