Guy Chauvet

Guy Chauvet (2 October 1933 – 25 March 2007) was a French operatic tenor.

Biography Guy Chauvet was born in Montluçon, Allier on 2 October 1933. He began singing as a child in the choir of the cathedral of his town. He took voice lessons in his native city with Bernard Baillour. He began winning a series of singing competitions in 1952 and in 1953 he won a prestigious international singing competition in Cannes. Hee was the youngest member of the tenor competition and one of five prizewinners, with Alain Vanzo, Tony Poncet, Roger Gardes and Gustave Botiaux. In 1955 he won first prize in the International Singing Competition of Toulouse, and in 1957 he won the Voix d'Or prize which earned him a contract with the Paris Opera.

Régine Crespin, Fiorenza Cossotto (with whom he sang Samson and Delilah), Gabriel Bacquier and Jon Vickers all worked with him, and he regarded Andréa Guiot as a sister. After a performance of Samson and Delilah at the Metropolitan, he obtained a standing ovation from the audience.

When Placido Domingo sang his first Otello in Paris, Chauvet was dressed and ready in case it was required he intervene.

He was the only French tenor to have sung Aida in Verona, alternating the role of Radames with Carlo Bergonzi, in August 1971 during the centenary of the opera's creation.

He was part of the revival of Meyerbeer's Le prophète with Marilyn Horne at the Metropolitan in 1977.

Guy Chauvet distinguished himself above all by the power of his emission, the timbre remaining clear and coppery throughout the whole range. He specialized in wide-ranging roles such as Faust of la damnation, Samson, Pagliacci, Otello, Radamès, Enée, Siegmund, Lohengrin, around the world and above all in performances with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He was also the advocate of such little known operas as Cherubini's Les Abencérages.