Marc Labonnette Bass baritone

Marc Labonnette was born in Orléans and initially trained on the saxophone before focusing on singing. After spending two years at the Centre de Musique Baroque in Versailles, he entered the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, then the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in Glasgow.

In 2004, he made his stage debut in Campra’s Idoménée. He then went on to tackle a number of other roles including the Comte de Guiche (Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Don Alfonso (Così fan Tutte), Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande), Baron Trombonok (Il Viaggio a Reims), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Alidoro (La Cenerentola) and Adario (Les Indes Galantes)...

He has been invited to perform on numerous stages, including the Paris Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, the Bordeaux, Marseille, Nancy, Montpellier, Versailles and Saint-Étienne Operas, Sadler’s Wells in London, the Buxton Festival... 

He recently performed in The Indian Queen at the Schwetzingen Festival, La Serva Padrona and Nélé et Myrthis at the Clermont-Ferrand Opera, Castor et Pollux at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Falstaff (Ford) at the Saint-Céré Festival and the Centre lyrique de Clermont-Auvergne, and King Arthur at the Opéra Royal in Versailles.

He took part in the creation of  Luca Francesconi's Trompe-la-Mort (Baron de Nucingen) at the Paris Opera, where he also performed various roles in Dalbavie's The Satin Slipper, and Alcindoro in La Bohème, Antonio in Les Nozze di Figaro and Monsieur de Brétigny in Manon.

Marc Labonnette also performs in concert (Fauré’s Requiem, Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Lully’s Proserpine, Marais’ Sémélé, Campra’s Requiem, and Telemann’s Orpheus). He has sung under the direction of numerous conductors, including Marc Minkowski, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Patrick Fournillier, Jean-Yves Ossonce, Roberto Forès-Veses, Luciano Acocella, Christophe Coin, Daniele Callegari, Michele Mariotti, Susanna Mälkki, Hervé Niquet, David Stern and Patrick Cohen-Akenine.

During the season 2022/2023, he will portray Prosper in Hahn's O mon bel inconnu at the Tours Opera, le Voleur Chanteleine in Landowski's La Vieille Maison at the Nantes Opera, Alcindoro in Manon and Sergeant Sulpice in La Fille du Régiment at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.