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Jean-Philippe Lafont, opera singer, France
Jean-Philippe Lafont, an opera singer of world renown, was born in Toulouse on 11 February 1951. He was an impressive sportsman so the region from which he originates, his stature and his tastes initially destined him to be a rugby player, a game which he plays with great enthusiasm. Overflowing with the joy of life, he simply sang but with such happiness and amplitude that a friend noticed him and advised him to approach the Academy where he was accepted and himself chose his teacher in the person of Denise Dupleix.
She immediately detected, behind a certain frankness, an out-of-the ordinary potential and an exceptional voice. But all that was still in the rough and it would need time and hard work to refine and discipline his personality and vocal power.
In 1973, Louis Erlo, Director of the new Opera Studio at the Paris Comic Opera, noticed Jean-Philippe Lafont and had him come up to Paris where he improved his diction, singing, interpretation and theatrical presence.
His career started in 1974 with the role of Papageno in the Magic Flute at the Salle Favart and continued with some of the greatest composers all around the world; at The Scala in Milan, The Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall in New York, The Monnaie in Brussels, The Liceo in Barcelona, Rome, Chicago, Madrid, Amsterdam, Vienna, Florence, Berlin, Munich, not to mention the great French opera houses: Garnier, Bastille, Champs-Elysées, Chatelet in Paris, Capitole in Toulouse, Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux and Nice.
In summer, he sings at the most famous festivals: Salzburg, Aix, Orange, Verona, Montpellier and he is one of the only four French singers, with Germaine Lubin, Ernest Blanc and Régine Crespin, to have sung at the mythical Bayreuth Festival where he played Telramund in Lohengrin by Wagner.
His repertory is very wide, comprising approximately a hundred roles.
Eve Ruggieri one day said of him: "He is the baritone they fight over " but Jean-Philippe Lafont is also, "in town", an appealing person who has managed to remain simple, lucid and honest in spite of an immense talent!
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