Editing Jane Bathori

{{Short description|French mezzo-soprano (1877–1970)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| image            = Jane Bathori 001.jpg
| caption          = Jane Bathori, 1912
| birth_name       = Jeanne-Marie Berthier
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1877|6|14|df=yes}}
| birth_place      = [[Paris]], [[French Third Republic|France]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1970|1|25|1877|6|14|df=yes}}
| death_place      = [[Paris]], France
| genre            = [[western classical music]]
| occupation       = [[opera singer]], [[Theatre director|director]]
| years_active     = 1898–1970
| spouse           = Pierre-Émile Engel  (married 1905–1927)
}}
'''Jane Bathori''' (14 June 1877 – 25 January 1970) was a French [[mezzo-soprano]]. She was famous on the operatic stage and important in the development of contemporary French music.

== Life and career ==
Born '''Jeanne-Marie Berthier''', she originally studied piano and planned a career as concert pianist but soon turned to singing, making her professional debut some time in 1898 at the small ''[[Théâtre de la Bodinière]]'' in the [[Rue Saint-Lazare]] in a concert to celebrate the poet [[Paul Verlaine]].<ref name=marston>Girard, Victor. [http://www.marstonrecords.com/bathori/bathori_liner.htm "Jane Bathori"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055517/http://www.marstonrecords.com/bathori/bathori_liner.htm |date=4 March 2016 }} Marston Records, 1998</ref> In the same year she made her debut in the ''grands concerts'' at the ''Concerts du Conservatoire'' followed by performances in [[Gabriel Fauré|Fauré]]'s ''La Naissance de Vénus'' and [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]]'s ''Messe de Requiem''. During the season 1899–1900 she made her operatic debut at [[Nantes]].<ref name=grove>Cox, David. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/02307 "Bathori, Jane"], Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 12 March 2015 {{subscription required}}</ref> Her first roles included [[soprano]] parts such as Mimi in ''[[La bohème]]'' and Micaëla in ''[[Carmen]]''.<ref name=marston/>

In the early 1900s Bathori began studying with [[Pierre-Émile Engel]], whom she married in 1908.<ref name=grove/> She became celebrated for her performance of [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]]'s song cycle ''[[Shéhérazade (Ravel)|Shéhérazade]]'' and gave the premières of his ''[[Histoires naturelles]]'' (of which she was the dedicatee) and of his ''Chansons madécasses''. In 1917 Bathori became the director of the ''Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier''.<ref name=grove/>

In the early 1920s she played an important role in the propagation of new music of this period,<ref>[[Jean-Pierre Thiollet]], ''88 notes pour piano solo'' (Magland: Neva Editions, 2015), pp. 102–103.</ref> especially by some of the members of [[Les Six]], giving many first performances of their works and those of others.<ref name=grove/>

Throughout the 1930s Bathori appeared every year at the [[Teatro Colón]] in [[Buenos Aires]]. In 1935 she was appointed to the [[Legion of Honour]] for her services to French music.<ref name=grove/> During the German occupation of France in the Second World War she made [[Buenos Aires]] her home. After her return to France she taught singing, and gave frequent talks for French radio.<ref name=grove/>

Bathori died in Paris in 1970, aged 92.<ref name=marston/>

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bathori, Jane}}
[[Category:1877 births]]
[[Category:1970 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century French women opera singers]]
[[Category:20th-century French women opera singers]]
[[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]]
[[Category:French operatic mezzo-sopranos]]
[[Category:Singers from Paris]]