Charles-Onésime Lamontagne

Lamontagne, Charles-Onésime

Charles-Onésime Lamontagne. Baritone, impresario, administrator, critic, b Montreal 21 Jan 1865, d there 21 Jan 1957. He was a member of the Montreal Philharmonic Society for about 15 years and belonged 1890-1912 to the choirs of the Gesù Church, St James Cathedral, and Notre-Dame Church. His interest in music led him to set up an importing and publishing business on Notre-Dame St, where he also ran an agency for artists and a copying, transposition, and orchestration service. He was editor-in-chief of the monthly L'Art musical (1898) and director 1917-24 and again in 1930 of the fortnightly Le Canada musical, which he founded. For several years he was correspondent for New York's Musical America and for the Brussels Guide musical.

Lamontagne became an impresario in 1895, presenting the violinist Marsick, and later Busoni, Casals, Albani, Melba, Thibaud, Dufault, Rodolphe Plamondon (Lamontagne's brother-in-law), the Flonzaley Quartet, and others. Lamontagne was administrator 1895-6 of the Couture MSO and 1910-13 of the Montreal Opera. In 1914 he helped negotiate the publication of the vocal score of Guillaume Couture's Jean le Précurseur by Joubert in Paris. However, the work's premiere that year was cancelled because of the war.

Lamontagne's wife, Annette (b Plamondon), appeared frequently as soprano soloist with the Couture MSO and took part in many other concerts. A collection of her papers is held at the National Library of Canada.

See also Yvette Lamontagne (his daughter).