Henri Prieur

Prieur, Henri

Henri Prieur. Tenor, b Montreal 17 Apr 1893, d there 22 Aug 1970. Revealing a rich voice as a youth, Prieur was encouraged to study music and trained 1911-20, with Arthur Plamondon, Jean Riddez, and Albert Roberval. He made his debut in 1911 in Montreal as Mylio in Le Roi d'Ys and later sang in Mireille and La Damnation de Faust (1918), Les Béatitudes (1921), Verdi's Requiem (1922), and Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha (1923). He appeared 6 Feb 1923 as the Narrator in the premiere of Guillaume Couture'sJean le Précurseur. Also noted as a lieder singer, Prieur performed in concerts in Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, and various major US centres. He was a soloist in 1918 at the Gesù Church in Montreal and in 1926 at St-Viateur in Outremont. He married the pianist Esther Wayland. Beginning in 1918 he recorded six songs for HMV (listed in Roll Back the Years).