Intégrale des enregistrements 1903-1907
01-d'Hardelot - A year ago (1907) 3:06
02-Tosti - Au temps du grand Roi (1907)
03-Verdi-Falstaff: Quand'ero paggio (1907)
04-Mozart-Don Giovanni: Deh vieni alla finestra (1904)
05-Verdi-Otello: Era la notte (1904)
06-Tosti - Ninon (1904)
07-Tosti - A Marechiare (1904)
08-Palahilde - Mandolinata (1904)
09-De Lara - Rondel de l'adieu (1904)
10-Verdi-Otello: Era la notte (1903)
11-Gluck-Iphegenie en Tauride: Récit et Air de Thoas (1903)
12-Gounod - Chanson de Printemps (1903)
13-Hahn - L'heure exquise (1903)
14-Hahn - L'heure exquise (1903)
15-Gounod - Chanson de Printemps (1903)
16-Erlanger - Fedia (1903)
17-Gluck-Iphegenie en Tauride: Récit et Air de Thoas (1903)
18-De Lara - Rondel de l'adieu (1903)
19-Verdi-Otello: Era la notte (1903)
20-Massenet - Marquise (1903)
Après des études lyriques au conservatoire de sa ville natale et un début assez remarqué au Grand Théâtre actuel Opéra municipal de Marseille dans Guillaume Tell, il vient à Paris Il étudie avec Eugène Vauthrot et Victor Alphonse Duvernoy au conservatoire de Paris et y remporte, au concours de 1867, les deux premiers grands prix d'opéra et d'opéra-comique. Il est engagé aussitôt à l'Académie nationale de musique, où il double Jean-Baptiste Faure et Caron. Mais à cette époque, déjà, la carrière italienne le tente et, en 1869, il est engagé à la Scala de Milan.
Il fait ses débuts à la Scala en créant Il Guarany d'Antônio Carlos Gomes. Son éclectisme lui permet d'aborder des rôles très différents. Mais Iago (dans Otello), Falstaff et Don Giovanni sont ses rôles fétiches. Il a créé les deux premiers le 5 février 1885 pour Iago et le 9 février 1893 pour le rôle-titre de Falstaff.
Son humeur vagabonde l'entraîne à New York, à Londres, au Caire, à Saint-Pétersbourg, à Moscou. Sa réputation est alors largement établie. Vaucorbeil l'engage en 1879 et il rentre de nouveau au Grand-Opéra, où il chante Hamlet, Don Juan, Aïda, Faust. Et le voilà reparti encore pour l'étranger.
Quand il revint à Paris, comme directeur du Théâtre italien, qui fit fureur en 1883 et qui fut inauguré par la première représentation de Simon Boccanegra de Verdi. Ses camarades étaient la Patti, Sembrich, Fidès-Devriès, MM. Nicolini, Gayarré et les deux de Rezké. L'entreprise ne fut pas cependant heureuse et Maurel dut recommencer ses tournées.
En 1906, il crée une école de chant à Paris, qu'il transfère à New York en 1909.
Meilleur baryton verdien de son temps, il avait une technique irréprochable et un jeu expressif et intelligent. Il est l'un des premiers à se donner la peine d'analyser en profondeur ses personnages. Il enregistrera malheureusement trop tard et nous laisse, sans doute, un pâle reflet de son art.
Maurel was born in Marseille. Educated in music and stagecraft at the Paris Conservatory, he made his debut in opera in 1867, in the city of his birth. The following year, he performed on stage in Paris for the first time. New York first heard him in 1873, when he performed at the Academy of Music. Later, he would sing at New York's Metropolitan Opera (in 1894-96 and 1898-99). Other famous venues at which he appeared included London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden - in 1873-79, 1891-95 and 1904 - and the Paris Opera, where he was on the roster of singers from 1879 to 1894.
Maurel was renowned in Europe and the United States for his vivid stage presence and exceptional acting and make-up skills; but his voice, while well trained and of good quality, was not considered to be as impressive as that of his chief French baritone rivals, Jean Lassalle (1847-1909) and Maurice Renaud (1861-1933).
In 1887, Maurel created the role of Iago in Otello at La Scala, Milan, and then, in 1893, he created the title role in Falstaff, again at La Scala. These were the final two, and arguably the greatest, operatic masterpieces composed by Giuseppe Verdi, and it was Verdi who selected Maurel to perform in the premieres.
Maurel made operatic history for a third time in 1892 when he was chosen to be the first Tonio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's enduringly popular verismo opera, Pagliacci.
Like many Paris-trained singers of his day, Maurel was equally adept at performing roles in Italian and French. He appeared, too, in several German operas by Richard Wagner (on 30 March 1873 he sang in the first production in Milan of Lohengrin, to Gabrielle Krauss's Elsa), and was a famous Don Giovanni in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera of the same name. George Bernard Shaw, however, though an admirer of Maurel, claimed that his genius was not Mozartian, and commented that "the problem of how to receive a call from a public statue does not seem to have struck him as worth solving".<Actinic:Variable Name = '1'/>
After retiring from opera, Maurel taught singing in Paris and New York City, where he died at the age of 75. His pupils included the contralto Frances Ingram and the baritones Herbert Heyner and Thomas Quinlan (impresario).
Some impressive examples of his vocalism are preserved on gramophone records he made in the early 20th century. These recordings, which include a few French songs and arias from Otello, Falstaff and Don Giovanni,. Maurel also wrote a number of books on opera and the art of singing, and dabbled in theatrical set design
