Meyrianne Héglon

Marie-Antoinette Willemsen (, 21 June 1867 – 11 January 1942) was a Belgian opera singer. After her marriage to the composer Xavier Leroux, she was known as Madame Héglon-Leroux.

Biography Born in Brussels, Héglon studied with Marie Sax and Barthot, Tequi and Louis-Henri Obin and continued her studies with Rosine Laborde. She made her debut at the Paris Opera in November 1890, as Maddalena in Rigoletto.

She sang at La Monnaie in 1894-1895 and later in 1901-1902. She performed as a guest artist in Ghent in 1898-1899.

Héglon frequently appeared at the Paris Opera from 1897 to 1907. On 7 April 1898, at the Paris Opera, she sang at the world premiere of Tre pezzi sacri by Verdi, with her and Marie Delna as mezzo-sopranos and Aino Ackté and Louise Grandjean as sopranos, as part of the concerts of the Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire, conducted by Paul Taffanel. She sang the role of Omphale in the première of Leroux's Astarté in 1901 with Louise Grandjean, Albert Alvarez and Francisque Delmas.

Héglon spent a large part of her career at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. On 4 October 1898 she signed a contract for three performances of Amneris in Aida, in Italian and four for the premiere of the title role of Isidore de Lara's Messaline. Héglon received considerable support from Camille Saint-Saëns and sang in his Samson and Delilah in 1904. on 7 November 1905 and also sang in this opera's premiere in London.

After her retirement from the stage, she taught singing. Among her most notable students was the French soprano Ninon Vallin.

On 8 April 1917 her husband, Xavier Leroux, conducted his work Les cadeaux de Noël. The participating artists were all students of Héglon. On 6 April 1918 another work by her husband was performed, 1814. For this performance, she came out of retirement to sing the role of The Mother. 1898: Pyrrha in La Burgonde, 23 December 1901: Omphale in Leroux's Astarté, 15 February 1901: Title role of Frédégonde 1901: Livie in Les barbares, 23 October 1902: Erda in Siegfried, 3 January. Liba in La Cloche du Rhin Title role of Handel's Theodora

Gallery