Crabbé, Armand (Charles)

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Crabbé, Armand (Charles)

Crabbé, Armand (Charles) , Belgian baritone;

b. Brussels, April 23, 1883; d. there, July 24, 1947. He studied with Demest and Gilles at the Brussels Cons. (1902–04), and then with Cottone in Milan. In 1904 he made his operatic debut as the Nightwatchman in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Théătre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. From 1906 to 1914 he sang at London’s Covent Garden, and returned there in 1937. On Nov. 5, 1907, he made his U.S. debut as Escamillo at N.Y’s Manhattan Opera; after appearances with the Chicago Grand Opera (1910–14), he sang at Milan’s La Scala (1915–16; 1928–31), in Buenos Aires (1916–26), and in Belgium. In his last years, he taught voice in Brussels. With Auguste Maurage, he composed the opera Les Noces d’or. He publ. the books Conseils sur I’art du chant (Brussels, 1931) and L’art d’Orphée (Brussels, 1933). Among his many roles were Rossini’s Figaro, Silvio, Beckmesser, Rabaud’s Marouf, Ford, and Valentin.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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