François Le Roux
François Le Roux has had a career that can only be described as illustrious. He has appeared at the Glyndebourne Festival, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and in many of the great opera houses of Europe and North America. Between 1985 and 1988 he was hailed, on the one hand, as the greatest Pelleas of his generation and on the other was awarded the Prix de la Révélation de l’année after performing the role of Don Giovanni at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. After more than 100 performances as Pelleas, he switched to the role of Golaud which he performed at the centenary of the world premiere of the opera on April 30th 2002.
His wide repertoire covers all Mozart baritone parts, a range of parts from the Italian repertoire including Figaro, Dandini, Malatesta and Marcello as well as baroque opera with title roles ; Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Campra's Tancrède and Rameau's Pollux to name but a few. His work in contemporary opera includes Henze's Der Prinz von Homburg conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch and world premieres of Birtwistle's Gawain at Covent Garden, Von Bose's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers at the Schwetzingen Festival and David Lang's Modern Painters at the Santa Fé Opera.
In addition to numerous operatic recordings for EMI, Erato, and BMG-RCA, Le Roux has released several recordings of French song repertoire for EMI, REM, HYPERION and DECCA-Universal all to great international acclaim.
He has been awarded the grade of Chevalier in the French National Order of Les Arts et Lettres in 1996, and chosen as Musical Personality of the year 1997 by the French Critics Union. His first book about the interpretation of French Song, titled Le Chant intime, received the 2004 René Dumesnil Award given by the French National Académie des Beaux Arts.
François Le Roux gives numerous recitals accompanied by such renowned names as Irwin Gage, Graham Johnson, Roger Vignoles, Noël Lee and Jeff Cohen, and also conducts master classes dedicated to the interpretation of French songs. Since 2006, he has taught at the Académie Maurice Ravel in Saint Jean-de-Luz, a position first held by the famous Pierre Bernac. He is artistic Director of the Académie Francis Poulenc.
