Opera Singer. A baritone, whose career spanned 40 years, he is remembered for creating the operatic roles of 'Zurga' in Georges Bizet's "Les pêcheurs de perles" and 'Ourrias' in Charles Gounod's "Mireille." The son of an illiterate tailor, he showed an interest in singing at a young age. Because his parents could not afford singing lessons, he was self-taught and left home at the age of 16 to become a street singer. In 1842 he was in Nantes, France where found work as a chorister in an opera house. There he received a break when he became a last minute replacement to sing the role of 'Max' in a production of Adolphe Adam's "Le chalet." He then travelled to Paris, France to further his voice training but was refused by the Paris Conservatoire. Forced to rely on self-education, he managed to obtain employment at an opera house in Verviers, Belgium, singing bass and baritone roles. His career started to gain success and between 1854 and 1860, he was singing at the Opera de Marseille in Marseille, France, followed by the Opera de Rouen in Rouen, France from 1862 until 1863. While there, he was noticed by impresario and stage director Leon Carvalho who signed him with his Theatre Lyrique company in Paris. He adopted the stage name 'Ismael' and with his new employer, he debuted on September 30, 1863 in the role of 'Zurga' in the premier of Bizet's "Les pêcheurs de perles" which elevated to stardom Other appearances include the role of 'Ourrias" in Gounod's " Mireilli" (which he created),the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's "Macbeth" and "Rigoletto," the title role in Gaetano Donizetti's "Don Pasquale," 'Falstaff' in Otto Nicolai's "The Merry Wives of Windsor," and 'Sganarelle' in Charles Gounod's "Le medecin malgre lui." When Carvalho's theater company went bankrupt in 1868, he returned to the Opera de Marseille before returning to Paris in 1871 to join the Opera-Comique. In 1873 he developed chronic laryngitis that forced him to retire from singing and he became Professor of Lyric Declamation (Opera) at the Paris Conservatoire from February 1874 until his sudden and unexplained dismissal in December 1876. Afterwards, he obtained work appearing in small comic operas and operettas until 1880. In 1885 he married a young soprano opera singer named Marie Garcin (his 2nd wife) who had a brief but successful career. He spent his remaining years giving private singing lessons at his home in Marseille where he died at the age of 68.