Jean Fournet

Jean Fournet was born in Rouen on 14 April 1913 and trained at the Paris Conservatoire, where he also spent much of his teaching career. He made his debut as a conductor in Rouen in 1936, and held his first post there in 1938, before taking charge of the Marseille orchestra in 1940.

Between 1944 and 1957 he was music director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris, and during those same years he taught conducting at the École Normale in Paris until 1962. Between 1961 and 1968 he conducted the Dutch Radio Orchestra and, from 1968 to 1973, was artistic director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. As a guest conductor he toured Europe, North and South America, Israel and Japan; in Tokyo, in 1958, he gave the premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande.

His presence in the United States included his debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1965 and his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1987 with Samson et Dalila. He is recognised for meticulous, demanding work, with a repertoire particularly associated with Berlioz, Debussy and Ravel. His performances of Dialogues des Carmélites were praised on both sides of the Atlantic.

His 1955 recording of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, sung in French with spoken dialogue, was reissued on CD in 1988. Among his other recordings are Les pêcheurs de perles, Berlioz's Requiem and Martin's Maria-Triptychon, the premiere of which he conducted in Rotterdam in 1969.