Albert Lance

His real name was Lancelot Albert Ingram. He took singing lessons with Greta Callew in 1933, then with Jessica Smith in 1948. He appeared in 1948 in nightclubs in Melbourne, and in 1949 in vaudeville. I have also a youthful picture of him showing him wrestling for money, I presume.

In 1953, Lance was engaged at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne, singing Tosca, Bohème, Madama Butterfly, and Les contes d'Hoffmann (1 March 1954). Dominique Modesti, a baritone, heard him as Hofmann and brought him to Paris for further studies.

He studied for 16 months and after an audition was hired by the Opéra-Comique. He made his debut on April 27th, 1956 in Tosca. He was successful and as a result was hired by Georges Hirsch at the Opéra. He remained there until 1972. He made his debut at the Opéra on November 25th, 1956 in Faust.

There Lance sang in following revivals: Ballo in maschera with Crespin (17 November 1958), Carmen with Massard, Guiot and Rhodes (10 November 1959), Tosca with Callas (act 2, 19 December 1958) & Tebaldi (10 June 1960), and Médée with Gorr (1 June 1962). Lance sang also in Les Indes galantes, Roméo et Juliette, La damnation de Faust, Faust, Rigoletto, and Die Frau ohne Schatten. At the Opéra-Comique, he sang in Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Werther, Les contes d'Hoffmann and Pagliacci.

Outside France, Lance sang at Covent Garden (Rigoletto, 5 February 1958 with Shaw, Langdon, Kelly, Sutherland, Berry; sharing the role with Robert Thomas and Oreste Kirkop), San Francisco (Blood moon, 18 September 1961), USSR (Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Riga), Buenos Aires (Werther, La damnation de Faust), and often in Rio de Janeiro between 1965 and 1969, as Werther, "his" two Fausts and Don José etc. (Eduardo Gabarra's comments: Apart from being an excellent tenor, he had a good figure and was a good actor. Together with Josephine Veasey, he appeared in the best productions of Werther and of La damnation the Faust that I've ever seen in the theater.)

Like any "French tenor", Lance sang in the French province (Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Orange) and Belgium. In 1972, Lance left the Opéra after a fight with director Bernard Lefort and went to Strasbourg for four years, singing in Salome, Pagliacci, Madama Butterfly, Der fliegende Holländer, etc.

Lance retired in 1977, to teach singing in Nice. He was naturalized French in 1967. He appeared in many radio and television programs.

CHRONOLOGY MINIMUM

Rio de Janeiro
1967, Faust: Lance, Sarroca, Carméli, Peyrottes; Pernoo

Buenos Aires
28 mai 1965, La damnation de Faust
Albert Lance (Faust)
Régine Crespin (Marguerite)
Gabriel Bacquier (Méphistophélès)
Victor de Narké (Brander/Une voix)
Tota de Igarzabal (La voix céleste)
Orquesta y coro estable del Teatro Colón
Direction Jean Fournet

11, 13, 16, 19, 22 juin 1965, Werther
Albert Lance (Werther)
Regine Crespin (Charlotte)
Angel Matiello (Albert)
Olga Chelavine (Sophie)
Victor de Narke (Le Bailli)
Nicolas Cuttone (Schmidt)
Gui Gallardo (Johann)
Jose Crea (Bruhlmann)
Tota de Igarzabal (Catalina)
Orquesta y coro estable del Teatro Colón
Direction Jean Fournet


Marseille
16 octobre 1959, Faust: Lance, Cumia, Depraz, Massard
21 avril 1963, Faust: Lance, Le Bris, A. Legros, Le Hémonet; Trik	
19 avril 1963, Faust: Lance, Le Bris, A. Legros, Le Hémonet; Trik
21 avril 1963, Faust: Lance, Le Bris, A. Legros, Le Hémonet; Trik
27 avril 1963, Faust: Lance, Le Bris, A. Legros, Le Hémonet; Trik
15 avril 1966, Carmen: Sarfaty, Lance, Le Hémonet, Silvy, J. Brun; Trik
17 avril 17, 1966, Carmen: Sarfaty, Lance, Le Hémonet, Silvy, J. Brun; Trik
23 avril 23, 1966, Carmen: Sarfaty, Lance, Van Dam, Rutili, J. Brun,Luigi Trik
6 mai 1966, Werther: Lance, Gorr, Angot, Rutili, Schooteen, Mercadel, Dresse; Trik
8 mai 1966, Werther: Lance, Gorr, Angot, Rutili, Schooteen, Mercadel, Dresse; Trik
25 avril 1969, Carmen: Sarfaty, Lance, Van Dam, Rutili, Schooteen, Luigi, Cagliéro, Demigny, Dresse, Bourret; Giovaninetti
27 avril 1969, Carmen: Sarfaty, Lance, Van Dam, Rutili, Schooteen, Luigi, Cagliéro, Demigny, Dresse, Bourret; Giovaninetti
13 mars 1976, Les contes d'Hoffmann: Lance, Patrick, Lublin, Zeani, Llado, Dresse, Hubert, Constantini, Poulizac; Suzan
16 mars 1976, Les contes d'Hoffmann: Lance, Patrick, Lublin, Zeani, Llado, Dresse, Hubert, Constantini, Poulizac; Suzan
19 mars 1976, Les contes d'Hoffmann: Lance, Patrick, Lublin, Zeani, Llado, Dresse, Hubert, Constantini, Poulizac; Suzan
21 mars 1976, Les contes d'Hoffmann: Lance, Patrick, Lublin, Zeani, Llado, Dresse, Hubert, Constantini, Poulizac; Suzan
19 février 1978, Carmen: Lance, Gras, Allibert, Hubert, Llado, Dresse, Cattin; Furst	



Toulon
23 février 1975, Paillasse	
1976, La damnation de Faust: Lance, Millet, Soyer	
20 février 1977, Carmen: Arrauzeau, Lance, Le Hémonet, Esposito	

Paris
Opéra
10 juin 1960, Tosca
Renata Tebaldi (Tosca)
Albert Lance (Caravadossi)
Gabriel Bacquier (Scarpia)

21 avril 1968, Médée 
Christiane Eda-Pierre (Créuse)
Hélia T'Hézan (Médée)
Denise Scharley (La nourrice)
Albert Lance (Jason)
Julien Haas (Créon)

Opéra-Comique
24 février 1967, Il tabarro
Jean-Pierre Laffage (Michel)
Suzanne Sarroca (Georgette)
Albert Lance (Luigi)
Isabelle Andreani (La Furette)
Robert Geay (La Taupe)
Rémy Corazza (Goujon)
Robert Andreozzi (Le marchand de dhansons)
Michel Llado, Nicole Menut (Un couple d'amoureux)

Théâtre du Capitole
octobre/novembre 1976, Carmen
Gillian Knight (Carmen)
Albert Lance (Don José)
Giorgio Zancanaro, René Franc (Escamillo)
Evelyne Mandac, Bernadette Antoine (Micaëla)
Hilary Western (Frasquita)

Strasbourg
18 octobre 1974, Madame Butterfly
Guiot, Codinas, Lance, Tumageanian, MacLane, Corazza, Staskiewicz, Trigean; Guigue

5 décembre 1975, Salome
Karan Armstrong (Salome)
Albert Lance (Herodes)
David Sundquist (Narraboth)
Armand MacLane (Jochanaan)
Simone Codinas (Herodias)
Gérard Friedmann, Naoko Ihara, Pali Marinov, Rémy Corazza etc. 


DISCOGRAPHY

La veuve joyeuse (Lehár)
Maria Candido (Missia Palmieri) – Mireille Martin (Nadia) – Gabriel Bacquier 
(Prince Danilo) – Albert Lance (Camille de Coutançon) – Pierre Giannotti (D'Estillac) – 
Pierre Dorbec (Figg);  
Orchestre Symphonique de Vienne et choeurs, dir. Jean-Claude Hartemann
Disc'Az STECLP38
1963	
	
Hérodiade (Massenet)
Régine Crespin (Salomé) – Rita Gorr (Hérodiade) – Albert Lance (Jean) – 
Michel Dens (Hérode) – Jacques Mars (Phanuel) 
Orchestre du Théâtre National de l'Opéra, dir. Georges Prêtre
La voix de son maître CVC1793
1963

Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach): extraits
Gérard Serkoyan (Lindorf) – Albert Lance (Hoffmann) – Julien Giovanetti (Coppelius) – 
Jean Giraudeau (Franz) – Mady Mesplé (Olympia) – Gabriel Bacquier (Docteur Miracle) – 
Suzanne Sarroca (Giulietta) – Andréa Guiot (Antonia) – Solange Michel (La mère) – 
Robert Massard (Dappertutto)
Choeur Georges Thery et orchestre, dir. Jésus Etcheverry
Mondiophonie MSA1002A
1965

Madame Butterfly (Puccini)
Denise Monteil (Cio Cio San) – Albert Lance (F. B. Pinkerton) – Jérome Jeffrys (Sharpless)
Orchestre Symphonique de Rome et choeurs, dir. Jean-Claude Hartemann
Disc'Az STECLP39

Rigoletto (Verdi): extraits
Mady Mesplé (Gilda) – Francine Arrauzau (Maddalena) – Albert Lance (Duca) – Gabriel 
Bacquier (Rigoletto) – Gérard Serkoyan (Sparafucile)
Orchestre et choeurs, dir. Jean-Claude Hartemann
Mondiophonie MSA7001A
1963

Carmen (Bizet): extraits
Jane Rhodes (Carmen) – Albert Lance (José) – Robert Massard (Escamillo) – 
Andréa Guiot (Micaëla) – Janine Panis (Frasquita) – Jacqueline Broudeur 
(Mercédès) – Bernard Plantey (Remendado) – Jean Mollien (Dancaïre)
Orchestre de l'Opéra de Paris, dir. Roberto Benzi
Philips	GL 5648
1959

Werther (Massenet)
Rita Gorr (Charlotte) – Mady Mesplé (Sophie) – Albert Lance (Werther) – Gabriel Bacquier 
(Albert) – Julien Giovannetti (Le bailli) – Robert Andreozzi (Schmidt) – Jacques Mars (Johann)
Orchestre et maîtrise de l'ORTF; dir. Jesus Etcheverry
Mondiophonie MSA101–103
1964

Madame Butterfly (Puccini)
Martha Angelici (Cio Cio San) – Albert Lance (F. B. Pinkerton) – Jeannine Collard (Suzuki) – 
Julien Giovannetti (Sharpless)
Orchestre de l'Opéra-Comique de Paris, dir. Albert Wolff
EMI LVDSM C 153-12186/7
1957

La Tosca (Puccini)
Janes Rhodes (Floria Tosca) – Albert Lance (Cavaradossi) – Gabriel Bacquier (Scarpia) – 
Gérard Serkoyan (Cesare Angelotti) – Aimé Doniat (Spoletta) – Jean-Pierre Hurteau 
(Sciarrone) – Bernard Demigny (Le sacristain) – Gérard Chapuis (Le geôlier); 
Freda Betti (Un berger)
Orchestre et choeurs du Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris, dir. Manuel Rosenthal
PG 115363–65
1960

Padmavat (Roussel)
Gorr, Lance, Souzay, Berbie; Martinon
2 disques MRF 141 S
1969

Recital
Tosca(2), Werther(2), La bohème, Paillasse, Faust, Roméo et Juliette, Hérodiade, Rigoletto			
Columbia FCX 30.113 D


RADIO

Carmen (Bizet)
Shirley Verrett (Carmen) – Albert Lance (José) – Robert Massard (Escamillo) – Isabel 
Garcisanz (Micaëla) – Nadine Sautereau (Frasquita) – Jacqueline Broudeur 
(Mercédès) – Bernard Demigny (Dancaïre) Michel Hamel (Remendado) – Anton Diakov
(Zuniga) – Claude Genty (Moralès)
RAI Roma, dir. Georges Prêtre
Frequenz 043-011
14 décembre 1967

Faust (Gounod)
Albert Lance (Faust) – Andrée Esposito (Marguerite) – Roger Soyer (Mephistophélès) – 
Robert Massard (Valentin) – Rina Cornelissens (Sièbel) – Elisabeth Cooymans (Marthe) – Cor Niessen
(Wagner)
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest (Amsterdam), dir. Roberto Benzi
Bella Voce (3 CDs) BLV 107.408
28 octobre 1972	

Werther (Massenet)
Lance, Berbie, Bacquier, Eda Pierre, Giovanetti; Fourestier

Messe pour Jeanne d'Arc (Paray)
Monteil, Lance, Collard, Mars
ORTF, dir. Paray
14 novembre 1973

Madame Butterfly (Puccini)
Lyne Cunia (Cio Cio San) – Raymonde Notipages (Suzuki) – Albert Lance (F. B. Pinkerton) – 
Gabriel Bacquier (Sharpless) – Jean Mollien (Yamadori) – Jacques Hivert (Goro) – Jacques 
Mars (Le bonze) – Claude Genty (Le commissaire)
Orchestre et choeur radio-lyrique, dir. Jules Gressier
16 au 19 mars 1959

Tosca
Christiane Castelli, Albert Lance, Louis Musy; Gustave Cloëz 7 décembre 1962
Christiane Castelli, Albert Lance, Jean Laffont; Pierre-Michel Le Conte 17 janvier 1964
Christiane Castelli, Albert Lance, Jean Laffont, Joseph Peyron, Lucien Lovano, René Lenoty; Pierre-Michel Le Conte 1966

I wish to thank Christian Torrent for the chronology and the discography..

Reference: Jean Gourret: Nouveau dictionnaire des chanteurs de l'Opéra de Paris, Albatros 1989.

Reference: Jean Gourret/Jean Giraudeau: Les prestigieux tenors de l'Opéra de Paris, Le sycomore 1980.

Additional information by Eduardo Gabarra.