Jean-François Borras, from “Little singer” of Monaco to tenor at the Monte-Carlo Opera
A distance of one kilometer as the crow flies, this is how we can symbolize the career of tenor Jean-François Borras. This distance is that which goes from the cathedral to the opera.
In the cathedral, thirty years ago, he was “Little singer”. He was one of those children who move us, at dawn, during religious ceremonies and who, once a year, will make their angelic voice heard in a few foreign countries.
At the opera, he will play from Sunday the role of Werther which he has, in the meantime, performed on some major stages around the world.
Cashier in the Casino’s gaming rooms
Jean-François Borras arrived in the Principality just a few days after his birth. His parents had come to launch themselves into the profession of tobacconist on the boulevard d’Italie – the business no longer exists, replaced by a real estate agency.
“From the age of 5, I never stopped singing on the radio. My parents then had the idea of enrolling me with the Little Singers. As a teenager, I had no thought of a career in opera. I didn’t even know if I was a tenor or a baritone. With some friends, we formed a vocal variety group Pow Wow style. I then entered the Music Academy where Madame Vémian and then Marianne Losco provided my training.”
But he had to make a living.
It was at the casino that he found his salvation. Cashier in the gaming rooms. Did he imagine, at the time, that one day he would shine on the other side of the hall, that is to say on the opera side?
A commitment to a representation of Don Juan of Mozart in Menton persuaded her to continue on the lyrical path.
“I took my courage
with both hands and… it worked!”
We know the rest. In 2014, a stroke of fate that all artists dream of at the start of their career: “I had been hired at the New York Opera as understudy for the great tenor Jonas Kaufmann. Doubles are those singers who are hired in large theaters to replace the holder of the role in the event of an accident. They are almost never used. Or, that day, they call me in the afternoon to tell me that Kaufmann is ill and that I have to sing in the evening. I took my courage in both hands and… it worked!”
Overnight, Jean-François Borras is known throughout the world of opera. His career is induced.
And for what role did this replacement take place? In that of Werther, which he is about to sing in Monaco and which he performed three years ago in Valencia, Spain, in the same staging by the director of the Monte-Carlo opera, Jean- Louis Grinda. The least we can say is that Werther is the “role of his life.
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Opera, this Sunday at 3 p.m.; Tuesday 22 and Saturday 26 at 8 p.m.; Thursday 24, evening reserved for young audiences.
Price: 15 to 60 euros.
Phone. +377.98.06.28.28.