Léonard Bilodeau

Bilodeau, Léonard

Léonard (Albert Joseph) Bilodeau. Tenor, b Quebec City 11 July 1935, d Québec City, 6 May 2008. He studied singing ca 1955 with Louis Gravel and 1957-61 on scholarship with George Lambert and Irene Jessner at the RCMT. He was a soloist in the Verdi Requiem with the orchestra and choir of the RCMT under Ernesto Barbini and gave a recital in Toronto for the Alliance française in 1958. Winner of an award from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, he sang the roles of Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Roméo, Werther, Vincent (Mireille), and Bénédict (Béatrice etBénédict) at the Manhattan School of Music, New York, where he continued his training ca 1962-ca 1965 with John Brownlee and the stage director Carlton Gauld. Léonard Bilodeau sang in Spontini's La Vestale with Régine Crespin at Philharmonic Hall, New York, and in Mignon at the 1963 summer festivals in Central Park. In Quebec he appeared with the Théâtre lyrique de Nouvelle-France in La Bohème (Rodolfo) in 1962, Madama Butterfly (Pinkerton) in 1964, La Traviata (Alfredo) in 1965, Lakmé (Gérald) in 1965, and Mignon (Wilhelm Meister) in 1966.

Léonard Bilodeau made his French debut in Lille ca 1965, singing Gérald in a production of Lakmé with Mady Mesplé in the title role, and gave recitals in Austria. On his return to Canada he undertook a JMC tour in 1965 as a member of a vocal trio. In 1967 he sang Les Pêcheurs de perles in New Orleans, and Don Pasquale in aCOC touring production. He gave up singing in 1970 to pursue a career in business.