Llorenç

Llorenç Pagans Julià

Cervià de Ter , 1838
Paris , 1883

Performer

Singer and music teacher. He spent most of his career in Paris, where he was acquainted with central figures of the city’s artistic life such as Rossini, Wagner, Saint- Saëns, writers such as Émile Zola or Alexandre Dumas, and painters such as Marià Fortuny, Giuseppe de Nittis, Gustave Doré, Édouard Manet or Edgar Degas (who repeatedly depicted him in his paintings). In 1858, a few years before moving to Paris, he made his operatic debut in Barcelona and Maó. After a brief stint at the Imperial Conservatory, he studied with Géraldy and began to sing in the most important halls and at the Théatre des Italiens. Over time, his Rossinian tenor voice adapted to other repertoires - from Baroque music to Wagner - and to contemporary French music. He was renowned for his performance of songs that recreated an exotic and picturesque Spanishness. Despite having successfully performed in London and achieved considerable prestige as a singing teacher, his early death led to his falling into oblivion.