Born in the USA into a French family. (Allegedly, his grandfather had fought in the Paris Commune of 1871, which would have been a valid
reason to flee to America.)
Henri La Bonté was a voice teacher, but also a singer, a piano accompanist and a busy concert organizer. And he was
something of an impostor, posing alternately as an Italian and a French tenor, as having toured with Fritz Kreisler, as having sung at
Covent Garden, which is all untrue; further, as having studied with either Victor Maurel or Giovanni Sbriglia (the teacher of Pol
Plançon, Jean and Édouard de Reszke), which is highly improbable; and as having toured also with Nellie Melba, which was
highly imprecise (he only supported her in one concert in San Diego in February 1916). And he repeatedly announced he was about to depart
for important operatic engagements, such as a season with the Cleveland Grand Opera Company in 1916, where he would sing Canio, Rodolfo,
Don José, Enzo Grimaldo and Cavaradossi... just that none such performances were ever documented by the press. The only proven and
tested opera appearance by La Bonté was with the Inter-State Opera Company in Detroit on 2 December 1916, in Tristan und
Isolde, where he was the Shepherd (to Karl Jörn's Tristan, Margarete Matzenauer's Isolde and Eleonora de Cisneros'
Brangäne).
Other than that, he sang in vaudeville and musical comedy, occasionally in concerts of sacred music, and above all in concerts, many of
them rather semi-professional upper-class events, and regularly for charity purposes. I first find him in 1909/10 as a member of the
Constance Balfour Concert Company: gathered around the eponymous soprano were a pianist, a violinist, and La Bonté. With a program
of arias and songs, they toured Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Illinois. 1912 found him in New York (City and State), giving several
concerts, the most prominent of which was at the Hippodrome Theater in NYC on 17 March, with one Russian Symphony Orchestra and, among
others, Rosa Olitzka. However, he also appeared with the Russian Symphony Orchestra in Indiana and Kansas in May. In 1913, he was again
in the NY area, singing Alfred in Fledermaus in July at the Olympic Park in Newark. From March 1914, he was part of a troupe
performing a successful musical comedy called The red rose; they toured the US from Vermont to Oregon until at least May 1915.
A busy period came in California, where he spent 1916: lots of socialite and charity concerts, mainly in Los Angeles and San Diego, many
of them organized by La Bonté himself; at least one one occasion, he featured also his former concert employer, Constance Balfour.
In 1917, he was back in the East and appeared in the vaudeville show Katinka in New York, Boston or St. Johnsbury. In 1919, he was
announced as living in Dallas when singing in Denton, Texas, and as living in New York when acting as a juror in a high school musical
competition in Topeca, Kansas. And in December 1921, he was once again in Los Angeles for a vaudeville program at Grauman's Rialto.
From fall 1928 and spring 1929, there are quite many newspaper mentions of La Bonté: he lived in Paris as a voice teacher at that
time, accompanying American students at the piano when they gave some small-scale concerts in Paris, while appearing at other such
concerts as a singer. By December 1929, however, he was back to the US, where he appeared on the radio. This is the last reference to him
that I can find.
References:
- The Bennington Evening Banner, 15 April 1914
- The Brattleboro Daily Reformer, 16 April 1914
- The Cairo Bulletin, 2 March 1910
- The Catholic Transcript, 19 December 1929
- Chicago Daily Tribune and the Daily News, 17 October 1928 & 16 March 1929
- The Chickasha Daily Express, 26 November 1909
- Detroiter Abend-Post, 26 November 1916
- East Oregonian, 30 March 1915
- The Evening Post, 16 March 1912
- The Johnstown Daily Republican, 24, 27 & 30 January 1912
- The Log Cabin Democrat, 8 & 11 February 1910
- Los Angeles Herald, 3, 11 & 15 February, 7, 14, 17 & 22 March, 22 April, 5 May, 26 September 1916, 23 & 30 December 1921
- Newark Evening Star, 8 July 1913
- The New York Herald, 4 September, 17 October & 11 November 1928, 5 & 19 March 1929
- The Ogden Standard, 12 April 1915
- Plattsburgh Daily Press, 30 March 1914
- The Purdue Exponent, 18 May 1912
- St. Johnsbury Caledonian, 21 March 1917
- San Bernardino Sun, 2 February 1916
- San Diego Union and Daily Bee, 25 August, 1, 5 & 9 October 1916, 1 January 1917
- The Seattle Star, 30 October 1918
- The Topeka State Journal, 29 April 1912 & 28 March 1919
- The Yucca. Yearbook of NSNTC 1918-19, Denton 1919
Picture sources: The Seattle Star, 30 October 1918; Los Angeles Herald, 31 December 1921
